A review of the literature examining the relationship between alcohol use and HIV-related sexual risk-taking in young people.

Young people have been targeted as a potentially vulnerable population for the spread of HIV. The influence of alcohol on sexual behaviour is part of popular knowledge. More recently, studies have attempted to illuminate the relationship between alcohol use and sexual risk-taking in relation to HIV transmission. In our review of the literature three important points are highlighted for researchers in this area. First, methodological problems make establishing any relationship extremely difficult. Secondly, the concept of sexual risk-taking has to be developed to include acknowledgement of the context in which sex takes place rather than defining risk only in terms of sexual acts. Finally, populations of gay men and men who have sex with men and lesbians are sufficiently different from heterosexuals, with regard to the influence of alcohol on sexual behaviour, to make generalizations about one population inappropriate for the other.