Effects of Household Shocks and Poverty on the Timing of Traditional Male Circumcision and HIV Risk in South Africa

Atheendar S. Venkataramani and Brendan Maughan-Brown ()
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Atheendar S. Venkataramani: Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University
Brendan Maughan-Brown: SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town

No 93, SALDRU Working Papers from Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town

Abstract: Poverty may influence HIV risk by increasing vulnerability to economic shocks and thereby preventing key health investments. We explored this by examining the relationship between household shocks and the timing of traditional male circumcision, a practice associated with considerable expense and whose HIV-prevention benefits are larger when done earlier, even within young adulthood. Using unique data on a sample of Xhosa men, a group that almost universally practice traditional circumcision, we found that respondents in the poorest households delayed circumcision by two years if a household member experienced loss of income or death and/or illness. The impact of these shocks declined with increasing household income. Our findings suggest that interventions that work to mitigate the impact of shocks among the poor may be useful in HIV prevention efforts. More generally, they illustrate that the relationship between HIV and wealth may be more nuanced than assumed in previous work.

Keywords: Economic shocks; poverty; male circumcision; HIV; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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