AEGiS-11IAC: Factors associated to AIDS risk behavior in a population of drug dependents.

11th International AIDS Conference

Vancouver, British Columbia — July 7-12, 1996

Factors associated to AIDS risk behavior in a population of drug dependents.

Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:459 (abstract no. Pub.C.1134)
Doering Silveira E, Xavier da Silveira D; PROAD, Department of Psychiatry, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fax: (55-11) 570.1543.

OBJECTIVE: to study variables associated with AIDS risk behavior in a sample of drug dependents.

METHODS: Five hundred and thirteen drug addicts were interviewed in 1995 in an outpatient health care unit in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We examined correlation between risk behavior and other variables (demographic, pattern of drug use and associated depressive symptoms). The Chi-square test, Fisher Exact Test and Odds Ratio were used in data analyses with a minimum significance level of 5% (p is less than 0.05).

RESULTS: Subjects presented a mean age of 27.19 years (sd=9.8), 86.7% were male, 62.7% single and 43.9% were unemployed. Four hundred and five (78.9%) addicts demonstrated having no risk perception. Only 105 (20.5%) patients had been previously tested for HIV. Rate of HIV+ was 7.62% in the sample. Half of seropositive addicts had never been IV drug users and 37.5% referred no systematic condom use. We observed higher proportion of sexual abstinence among women (p is less than 0.02). Women also presented a higher estimate of risk exposure to the virus than men (p is less than 0.0005) although the latter showed lower proportion of sexual abstinence. Concerning the use of condoms, 188 (36.6%) patients never used them and 121 (23.6%) did use them only occasionally. No differences in the use of condoms were detected between IVDU and non-IVDU. Systematic condom use was equally low among both cocaine and alcohol dependents. We also found a positive correlation between IV drug use and the presence of depressive symptoms (p is less than 0.02).

CONCLUSION: We confirmed that among drug addicts factors associated with risk behavior seem to be gender related. Alcohol and cocaine (IV and non-IV) dependents displayed similar patterns of sexual risk behavior. Depressive symptoms may play an important role in determining a pattern of IV drug use. Drug addicts constitute an extremely polymorphic population and this study suggests the need to find specific strategies towards different sub-group of addicts. Nevertheless, further studies are required to establish well defined standard profiles of dependents with distinct levels of exposure to risk for the infection.

Keywords: AEGIS, Risk-Taking, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Condoms, Substance Abuse, Intravenous, HIV Infections, Substance-Related Disorders, HIV Seronegativity, HIV Seropositivity, Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Population, Urban Population, Sexual Abstinence, Brazil, Human, Female, Male, immunology, ICA11

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