Prevalence and Factors Associated with Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men

Background:With fast globalization, Vietnam is experiencing a “quiet” sexual revolution in which sexuality is shifted from being associated with reproduction and men’s health to personal pleasure. Popular media are filled with stories of women feeling torn and helpless when their husbands have extramarital sex (EMS). Yet little is known about the prevalence and factors associated with EMS among Vietnamese married men. This is a notable gap, given the enormous political, economic, cultural, and social changes in the country over the past several decades and the implications of EMS on HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, and family.

Methods: 127 married men were selected using snowball and quota sampling from four locations representing rural and urban areas in Northern and Southern Vietnam. Participants responded to a survey developed by modifying the 1992 US National Health and Social Life Survey. Data were analyzed in two stages. In the first stage, we split the study sample into two groups—those who reported EMS and those who did not. The groups were then compared using t-tests for ordinal and scale variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables. In the second stage, we grouped these variables into four groups: demographics (age, residency, education, income), sexual values (acceptability of EMS, gender relations in sex, perceived impact of excessive sex), general quality of marriage (compatibility, duration, wife’s attentiveness, love for wife, perceived EMS of wife, and domestic violence), and quality of marital sex life (frequency of sex, satisfaction with sex, orgasm). We then ran four multivariate logistic regression models to determine which categories of variables were the strongest predictors of EMS. Groups of variables were added in a stepwise fashion, starting with demographic variables, followed by sexual values, quality of marriage, then quality of marital sex life.

Results: We found that 43% of the sample reported having EMS; half of them had EMS lasting between 1 and 6 months and 26% currently involved in an extramarital relationship that lasted for more than 6 months. Compared to married men in the US and other Asian, African, Latin American countries, which reported the rate of EMS between 2% to 33%, Vietnamese married men have the highest rate of EMS. Men who had EMS were more likely to reside in Hanoi, had higher education, higher average income, and higher acceptance of EMS compared to the non-EMS group. Satisfaction with current marital relationship and marital sexual life was not associated with EMS. However, men who thought that their wives were involved in EMS were eight times more likely to have EMS than men who did not think that their wives are involved in EMS.

Implications: High EMS rate among Vietnamese married men might explain the rise in the number of Vietnamese women acquiring HIV and STDs from unprotected sex with their husbands. Findings from the study indicate that measures need to be developed to prevent HIV/AIDS and STDs spreading through EMS, as well as to preserve Vietnamese families.