Childhood Sexual Abuse Leads to Higher HIV/STI Risk in US Study

Being sexually abused as a child independently raised the risk of HIV infection or sexually transmitted infection (STI) in a nationally representative US sample. HIV/STI risk was highest in men and women who had same-sex experience or attractions.

Childhood sexual abuse has been associated with health and behavioral problems when the abused children reach adulthood. This analysis of the 2004-2005 Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions set out to assess the impact of childhood sexual abuse on incidence of HIV and other STIs in subgroups defined by sexual orientation and attractions.

Overall, 14.9% of women surveyed and 5.2% of men reported childhood sexual abuse.

Compared with heterosexual women who never had same-same partners or attractions, bisexual women were 5.3 times more likely to report childhood sexual abuse, lesbians 3.4 times more likely, and heterosexuals with same-sex partners 2.9 times more likely.

Compared with heterosexual men who never had same-same partners or attractions, bisexual men were 12.8 times more likely to report childhood sexual abuse, gay men 9.5 times more likely, and heterosexuals with same-sex partners 7.9 times more likely.


Women and men who reported they were sometimes or frequently abused as children had significantly higher odds of acquiring HIV or another STI than did people who were not abused.

Compared with women not abused as children, abused women reporting same-sex partners or attractions were 3.8 times more likely to get infected with HIV or another STI and abused heterosexual women were 2.8 times more likely to get infected.

Compared with men not abused as children, abused men reporting same-sex partners or attractions were 4.2 times more likely to get infected with HIV or another STI and abused heterosexuals were 1.5 times more likely to get HIV or another STI.


“Extraordinarily high rates of childhood sexual abuse were observed for sexual minorities,” the authors conclude, “and sexual minorities were more likely to have incident HIV or STIs.”

“Identifying the impact of childhood sexual abuse among heterosexuals and sexual minorities in the US is a crucial first step in examining the sequelae of childhood sexual abuse,” the authors observe, “including the potential mediators of mental health and substance abuse disorders in the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and sexual risk taking.”

Source: Thersa Sweet, Seth L. Welles. Associations of sexual identity or same-sex behaviors with history of childhood sexual abuse and HIV/STI risk in the United States. JAIDS. 2012; 59: 400-408.

For the study abstract

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Written by Mark Mascolini on behalf of the International AIDS Society