HETEROSEXUAL PARTNERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN

In order to assess the individual risk of acquiring sexually transmitt ed diseases (STDs), both characteristics of the partnership and the in dividual should be considered. Partnership characteristics have been u sed as risk markers for STD transmission but their distribution has no t been well described. Using a self-administered questionnaire, we col lected information on the partnership characteristics of the 4 most re cent sexual partners of the members of 9 university women's social org anizations at the University of Michigan. Respondents were asked to re port the setting of the first meeting of partners, the length of the p resexual relationship, condom use at the first sexual encounter and th e total number of sexual encounters within that partnership. We graphi cally analyse changes in these partnership characteristics with respec t to partnership order. As the number of sexual partners increased the women in this population were more likely to report partnership chara cteristics associated with an increased risk of acquiring an STD. In a ddition, partnership characteristics varied with the order of the part nership, implying that no single partnership is representative of all others.