Abstract

Unsafe sex is the second most important risk factor for disability and deaths in the poorest countries and the ninth most important in developed countries. Globally, 30.8 million adults are living with HIV/AIDS and 340 million people are infected annually with sexually transmitted diseases. Unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS had been inexorably linked to sex, yet, there is no health behavior model focusing squarely on sexual attributes to provide analytical framework for the examination of unsafe sexual behaviors and the spread of sexual transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. This hinders the understanding of the roles of sexual attributes and contextual factors in influencing unsafe sex and the spread of related infections. The ‘Sexual Webs model’ has been constructed based on the individuals’ sexual attributes; levels of entanglement into the “sexual networks” known as “Sexual webs” for the examination of contextual issues influencing unsafe sexual behavior and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Published qualitative research articles on sexual behaviors, and health behavior models were selected from the internet using Google and Google Scholar search. The research findings were synthesized using meta-ethnographic analysis. Research endeavors using the postulates of this model would provide better insight on the contextual issues influencing unsafe sexual behavior for policy formulation and program interventions to promote safe sexual practices.

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