A new study in Zimbabwe suggests that promoting condom use will be more effective in curbing HIV rates than discouraging the “sugar daddy” phenomenon of older men having sex with younger women.

Researchers examined interviews of about 10,000 men and women discussing their sexual behaviors and found that increased condom use among older men would result in a 20% reduction in lifetime risk of contracting HIV for both men and women.

By contrast, replacing cross-generational partnerships with peer partnerships only reduced the lifetime risk by 10% for women and 5% for men.

A recent report from Uganda showed that young women aged 15-24 are four times as likely to become infected with HIV than are young men in that age group. This is due, in part, to the fact that many of the young girls are having sex with older men who are more likely to be infected than younger men.