152-157 Payn

Family Planning Perspectives even though penicillin has been an important and effective part of the public health campaign against syphilis and gonorrhea for more than 40 years, these STDs continue to be significant health problems. In fact, in some subgroups of the population, the incidence rates of these infections have risen dramatically.5 STDs persist in the U.S. population largely because of the complex ways in which pathogens and their hosts interact with social and environmental factors that determine the mechanism of acquisition and the pattern of transmission of these diseases.6 For example, social changes, such as modified patterns of nonmarital sexual behavior, overwhelm the effects of medical treatments. The control and prevention of STDs thus calls for more than technological improvements or medical innovations: It requires an understanding of the social and behavioral linkages involved in the acquisition and transmission of infection. Some studies have explored the social, demographic and behavioral characteristics associated with the acquisition of STDs.7 An equally important issue is how individuals behave once they are infected. In this article, we use a populationbased data set to examine the effects of inBetsy Payn is a researcher, and Koray Tanfer, John O. G. Billy and William R. Grady are senior research scientists, at Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation, Seattle. This article is based on a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, New Orleans, May 9–11, 1996. The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under grant R01-AI3436001A1. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of NIAID or the Battelle Memorial Institute. Men’s Behavior Change Following Infection With a Sexually Transmitted Disease