Associations between depressive symptoms, sexual behaviour and relationship characteristics: a prospective cohort study of young women and men in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Table 3 Associations between depressive symptoms, sexual behaviours and relationship characteristics for women

	Baseline count (percentage) n = 1294						12 months later count (percentage) n = 995
	D	ND	OR	P	AOR ¹	P	D	ND	AOR ²	P
3+ lifetime sexual partners [AOR² past year]	104 (38%)	343 (33%)	1.21 (0.91,1.61)	0.170	0.92 (0.67,1.25)	0.603	19 (8%)	57 (7%)	1.14 (0.65, 2.10)	0.633
Transactional sex	78 (28%)	240 (23%)	1.28 (0.96, 1.71)	0.082	1.12 (0.81, 1.55)	0.487	44 (20%)	104 (13%)	2.60 (1.37, 4.92)	0.003
More liberal power dynamics in the relationship vs. less liberal	184 (69%)	761 (77%)	.67 (0.47, 0.95)	0.029	0.81 (0.58, 1.13)	0.229	146 (68%)	609 (80%)	0.72 (0.42,1.23)	0.237
Partner has other partner(s)	177 (66%)	643 (64%)	1.06 (0.79, 1.40)	0.677	1.00 (0.74,1.35)	0.976	157 (74%)	506 (66%)	1.38 (0.97, 1.97)	0.073
Had a main partner who was 3+ years older	165 (61%)	526 (53%)	1.42 (1.05, 1.91)	0.021	1.37 (1.03, 1.83)	0.029	128 (60%)	442 (58%)	0.84 (0.50, 1.21)	0.371
Correct condom use with main partner at last sex	98 (35%)	365 (36%)	0.99 (0.74, 1.32)	0.960	1.08 (0.80, 1.46)	0.572	113 (54%)	386 (52%)	1.07 (0.77, 1.49)	0.658
2 or more episodes of physical or sexual abuse	127 (46%)	217 (21%)	3.22 (2.44, 4.24)	0.000	2.56 (1.89,3.46)	0.000	71 (26%)	142 (13%)	1.67 (1.18, 2.36)	0.003

D: depressed symptoms; ND: no depressed symptoms
OR: crude odds ratios for the association between baseline depression and baseline sexual behaviour outcomes
AOR¹: Baseline depressive symptoms and baseline sexual behaviour and relationship characteristics adjusted for age, socio-economic status, education, alcohol, childhood adversity and study design
AOR²: Baseline depressive symptoms and sexual behaviour and relationship characteristics a year later adjusted for baseline level of each variable and study design
CI: 95% confidence intervals