Psycho-social determinants for sexual partner referral in Uganda: Quantitative results

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing sexual partner referral using the Attitude-Social influence self-Efficacy model a s a guiding theoretical framework. The data was collected in an interview s urvey with 236 women and 190 men attending a sexually transmitted disease c linic in Kampala, Uganda. Intention, attitude, subjective norm, self-effica cy, and past behaviour in relation to partner referral as well as partner t ype were collected at time 1. At time 2 (1 month later), sexual partner ref erral was assessed. Intention, self-efficacy, and previous behaviour predic ted partner referral for women whereas intention, partner type and previous behaviour predicted partner referral for men. For the women the strongest predictors for intention were self-efficacy followed by attitude and partne r type. For the men the strongest predictor was attitude followed by partne r type and self efficacy. Social influence was a better predictor of intent ion for women than for men. An analysis of underlying cognitive beliefs dis criminating those who referred and those who did not refer the sexual partn er showed that attitudinal beliefs were the most important for men whereas self-efficacy beliefs were the most important for women. The targeting of t he gender-based discriminatory beliefs in intervention may improve complian ce with sexual partner referral. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.