Drug and sexual HIV risk behaviours related to knowledge of HIV serostatus among injection drug users in Houston, Texas

• Published in: International journal of STD & AIDS Vol. 25; no. 2; p. 89
• Main Authors: Noor, Syed W B, Ross, Michael W, Lai, Dejian, Risser, Jan M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.02.2014
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug Users - psychology; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; HIV Infections - prevention & control; HIV Infections - transmission; HIV Seropositivity - immunology; HIV Seropositivity - psychology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Risk-Taking; Sexual Behavior - statistics & numerical data; Sexual Partners; Socioeconomic Factors; Substance Abuse, Intravenous - complications; Substance Abuse, Intravenous - epidemiology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Texas - epidemiology; Unsafe Sex; Young Adult; Texas; HIV risk behaviours; HIV; sexually transmitted infections; Texas; sexual risk; AIDS; injection drug user; HIV serostatus knowledge; Houston
• ISSN: 1758-1052
• DOI: 10.1177/0956462413496079

This study examines the association between drug and sexual HIV risk behaviours and knowledge of HIV serostatus among a sample of injection drug users, recruited into the 2009 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance project. We calculated prevalence ratios and associated 95% confidence intervals of reporting a given risk behaviour comparing injection drug users unaware of their serostatus and HIV-negative to HIV-positive injection drug users. Of 523 participants, 21% were unaware of their HIV serostatus. The three groups were not different from each other in terms of drug-use behaviours; however, injection drug users unaware of their HIV serostatus were 33% more likely to report having more than three sexual partners in the past 12 months and 45% more likely to report having unprotected sex compared to HIV-positive injection drug users. We observed markedly higher prevalence of sexual risk behaviours among injection drug users unaware of their serostatus, but drug-use risk behaviours were similar across the groups.