| Sumario: | The writers describe two methods for estimating the rate of partnership acquisition, the average duration of partnerships, and concurrency of partnerships from routine sexual behavior data. They describe the first method as being based on the assumption that the sexual behavior of all individuals in a given population is driven by the same rate of acquisition of new partners, average duration of partnership, and average concurrency measure. They describe the second method as being based on the assumption that the rate of partner acquisition varies between individuals according to a gamma distribution. They then present applications of these models using data from males attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic and from females attending a family-planning clinic. They conclude that although both methods assume random partnership acquisition and the possibility of overlap in relationships, it may be more relevant for both methods to distinguish between individuals who are and are not in a stable relationship.
|
|---|