Sugar Daddies Syndrome: Elderly Sexual Behaviour and Implications for the Spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

Elias O. Wahab, Lagos State University

Sub-saharan Africa carries the greatest burden of HIV/AIDs with approximately 70 percent of all HIV infections worldwide. Sugar daddies denotes situation where male elderly persons engage young girls enough to be their daughters or grand- daughters in illegal sexual activity. The aim of this paper is to understand the interface between elderly sexual behaviour and the spread of HIV/AIDs. Data was collected through individual-based questionnaire and multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 810 elderly persons for the study. Chi-square was used to determine the effect of explanatory factors on the spread of HIV/AIDs. The study revealed that undergraduate girls are more likely to engage in sexual activity with ‘’sugar daddies’’ than with boys of their cohorts (77%). It also found that the reasons for such preference are poverty and cash nexus. Education, poverty, age and marital status are related to sugar daddies syndrome.