Assessing HIV vulnerability among young women in South Africa: A comparison of three risk assessment tools

Background: Young women in sub-Saharan Africa remain disproportionately affected by HIV. However, self-perceived HIV risk may not align with reported sexual behaviours or other dimensions of risk. Behavioural measures, such as the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), may capture risk-taking propensity not reflected in conventional self-report measures. We compared self-perceived HIV risk, behaviour-based HIV risk, and behavioural risk-taking propensity among young women in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey between July and November 2025 among self-report

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