Risk of HIV infection among married women in Zimbabwe: does living arrangement really matter?

Jeremy Gumbo, University of the Witwatersrand
Clifford O. Odimegwu, University of the Witwatersrand

With an estimated HIV prevalence of 15% Zimbabwe is among the world’s five worst affected countries by the pandemic, alongside Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland. This paper investigated the association between living arrangement and HIV infection among women in Zimbabwe. Demographic and Health Survey Data for 2005-06 and 2010-11 were used to investigate this association, by running two models using binary logistic regression. The direction of flow suggested by first model’s findings was inconsistent with one observed in the second model. Notably, from both models the association was insignificant. Our findings therefore suggested that living arrangement does not seem to have influence on HIV infection among women in Zimbabwe; hence does not really matter.