AEGiS-14IAC: HIV in urban vs. rural areas: Social and behavioral determinants of sexual risks among drug using intervention participants.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

HIV in urban vs. rural areas: Social and behavioral determinants of sexual risks among drug using intervention participants.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. D11132)

McCoy HV, McCoy CB, Zhao W
Florida International University, North Miami, United States

BACKGROUND: HIV prevalence continues to increase among drug users. Social factors that increase the risk of HIV include drug use, sexual risk behaviors, and sexually transmitted diseases. Behavioral theories predict that the same constructs employed in interventions should predict similar behavior change regardless of rural or urban location. Our theory-designed intervention employed strategies to increase condom usage which could be employed to reverse this trend.

METHODS: Data for this study were collected from 206 urban and 233 rural drug using, high risk participants living in Florida, who were recruited using targeted sampling. Eligibility criteria included age (18+), self-reports of vaginal sex in the previous week, and willingness to sign informed consent. The Sexual Risk Reduction Questionnaire Shortform(SRRQ-sf) collected data on partner types. Behavioral constructs came from the Theory of Planned Behavior.

RESULTS: Our study found that outcome expectancies and normative beliefs contributed significantly to drug users' intention to use condoms and actual condom use with their sex partners. While demographic determinants of HIV differed between urban and rural participants (using logistic regression analysis), so did behavioral risks for HIV: urban participants were influenced by both drug use (injecting) and condom use by causal partners; rural participants experienced only greater sexual risks. The associations between behavior constructs and condom use did not differ for rural or urban areas. Behavior changes at post intervention are expected to be influenced in similar ways -- outcome expectancies and normative beliefs will predict improvements in drug use behaviors in urban participants and sexual risk behaviors in rural intervention participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Interventions designed using theoretical foundations are more likely to increase HIV protective factors among drug users even in different environments such as rural and urban areas.

Keywords: AEGIS, HIV Infections, Risk-Taking, Sex Behavior, Condoms, Sexual Partners, Substance-Related Disorders, Safe Sex, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV Seropositivity, Prevalence, Condoms, Female, Questionnaires, Florida, Female, psychology

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