Risk Behavior for HIV Infection of Intravenous Drug Users and Their Sexual Partners Recruited From Street Settings in Philadelphia

• NCJ Number: 140165
• Journal: Journal of Drug Issues Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1992) Pages: 867-884
• Author(s): J Liebman; N Mulia; D McIlvaine
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): DA04841
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study focused on the patterns of drug use, AIDS- related knowledge and attitudes, injection- and sex-related behavior, and risk reduction practices among a sample of 723 intravenous drug users (IVDUs) and 113 non-IVDU sex partners of IVDUs recruited from street settings in Philadelphia.

Abstract

The findings showed that, while the level of knowledge about AIDS was fairly high among both samples, these groups tended to perceive their personal risk of HIV infection to be low, despite a perception that the community as a whole was at risk. There was some evidence that risk reduction programs were having an impact; one-third of IVDUs and nearly one-half of non-IVDU sex partners of IVDUs reported using condoms at least some of the time. About 40 percent of the IVDUs reported consistent use of new needles and one-half of the remainder bleached their needles between uses. The findings showed a high degree of risky sexual interaction between non-IVDU sex partners of drug users with other non-IVDUs. The HIV seroprevalence rate among this sample of IVDUs was higher than among heterosexual IVDUs in Philadelphia drug treatment centers who were tested during the same time period. The results, which showed a high rate of drug use among non-IVDU sex partners of IVDUs, indicate that HIV prevention efforts will need to address issues of addiction and co-dependency among this population. 7 tables, 2 notes, and 25 references