Survey on HIV/AIDS, Health Risk Behavior & Sexual and Reproductive Health

This survey was carried out in February-March 2005 in the Irkutsk, Orenburg, Saratov and Ivanovo Regions of the Russian Federation as a baseline for a programme on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and youth risk behaviour. The sample consisted of 4,967 respondents between the ages of 14 and 35 years of age.

The 65-page report is divided into three sections, with the following findings:


HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)Knowledge, Attitudes and Communication

• Awareness of HIV/AIDS and other STIs, as well as methods of protection is very high with some misconceptions.
• Few respondents reported discussing HIV or AIDS with their spouse or sexual partner in the past year. In contrast, 29% of male respondents and 30% of female respondents reported discussing HIV/AIDS with a friend or relatives in the past year.
• Stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV appears to be quite high in the four surveyed regions. Only 16% of men and 14% of women were willing to buy vegetables from an infected shopkeeper and only 27% think that an HIV-infected female teacher should be allowed to continue to teach in school.

Risk Behaviours for HIV/AIDS, STIs, and Unwanted Pregnancies

• 7% of respondents reported that they have ever used an illegal drug.
• Alcohol consumption was common and frequently excessive.
• The reported median age for first sexual intercourse was 16 years for boys and 18 years for girls.
• Adolescents reported a number of reasons for delaying their sexual debut. Unmarried male adolescents were divided in their reasons for not initiating sexual activity, with 44% citing the lack of opportunity and 38% citing the desire to finish school and pursue a career as their main reason for not initiating sexual activity. Among unmarried female adolescents, over 50% cited the desire to finish school and pursue a career and 26% cited the desire to control their own life as the main reason for not initiating sexual activity.
• Overall, 68% of all unmarried males and 52% of unmarried females were sexually active in the 12 months prior to the survey.
• Contraceptive use was high among married couples.

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• About 3% of sexually active unmarried men and 2% of married men reported they had had sex in exchange for money.
• 1% of sexually active males and 10% of sexually active females reported that they had sexual intercourse against their will (among them, 14% were sexually active girls between the ages of 14 and 17 years).

Use of Health Services and Communication Channels

• In general, women reported using the help and advice of medical providers much more often than men.
• Television has the greatest reach of all mass media channels. Ninety-five percent of all respondents watch television at least several times a week and 82% watch television daily. Television reaches all sub-groups of the population in almost equal degree, with few differences observed by age, gender, oblasts, and type of settlement. On average, respondents watch television about 3.8 hours each day, with few differences by gender and age.
• Forty-six percent of respondents listen to the radio every day and an additional 12% listen to the radio at least several times a week. Radio stations generally reach a much smaller audience than the television channels, with radio channels specific to each region. Radio use was higher among male respondents, reaching about two-thirds of males over the age of 18 years. Among women, radio use was higher among younger respondents and lower among older women.
• Internet has limited reach in the study regions. Only 13% of respondents reported that they used the internet at least once per week. The highest internet use was observed among males between the ages of 14 and 22 years; 15% of this age group use the internet at least once per week.
• Newspapers reach about one third of the target population. The reach of magazines/ journals was larger – 38% of males and 54% of females read magazines at least once per month. Newspapers were mostly read by people between the ages of 30-35 years (43% of male and female in this age group read newspapers at least several times a week). Magazine use did not appear to vary by age among males, but younger females were more likely than older females to read magazines regularly.
• Most people in surveyed regions used Russian as their main language. Russian was the main language for almost all respondents in Irkutsk and Ivanovo regions. In Saratov 3% of the surveyed population used non-Russian language mostly at home. In Orenburg the proportion of people speaking a non-Russian language was 10%.
• Television was the most trusted source of information. More than half of all respondents said that they trust television more than any other mass media channel for getting information about health. Newspapers were the next most trustworthy media source (about one-fifth of all respondents trust them most of all). Although the audience for magazines and radio was rather large, few people appeared to trust these sources for health information. Women appeared to trust magazines for health information more than men.