Objective. To investigate the nature of male circumcision and its relationship to HIV infection.
Methods. Analysis of a sub-sample of 3 025 men aged 15 years and older who participated in the first national populationbased survey on HIV/AIDS in 2002. Chi-square tests and
Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to identify factors associated with circumcision and HIV status, followed by a logistic regression model.
Results. One-third of the men (35.3%) were circumcised. The factors strongly associated with circumcision were age >50, black living in rural areas and speaking SePedi (71.2%) or
IsiXhosa (64.3%). The median age was significantly older for blacks (18 years) compared with other racial groups (3.5 years), p