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Female Gender and HIV Transmission Risk Behaviors Among People Living with HIV Who Have Ever Used Injection Drugs in St. Petersburg, Russia

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Abstract

Among persons who inject drugs, women have a higher HIV prevalence (than men) in many settings. Understanding how gender affects risk for infection among HIV-negative, and transmission among HIV-positive people who currently or previously injected drugs is key to designing effective prevention and treatment programs. We analyzed data from 291 persons living with HIV who had ever injected drugs. Participants were drawn from the Russia Alcohol Research Collaboration on HIV/AIDS cohort (2012–2015) to examine associations between female gender and HIV transmission risk. Primary outcomes were sharing drug injecting equipment (e.g., needle/syringes) and condomless sex. Secondary outcomes were alcohol use before sharing drug injecting equipment; before condomless sex; and both sharing drug injecting equipment and condomless sex. Logistic regression models assessed associations between gender and outcomes, controlling for demographics, partner HIV status and use of antiretroviral treatment. Female gender was not significantly associated with sharing drug injecting equipment [aOR = 1.45, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85–2.46, p value = 0.18] but was associated with condomless sex (aOR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.12–3.23, p = 0.02) in adjusted models. Female gender was not significantly associated with any secondary outcomes. Better understanding of risky sex and drug use behaviors among people who currently or previously injected drugs can support the design of effective gender-tailored HIV prevention interventions.

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Acknowledgements

The study and its data analysis was supported by the following NIH Grant Funding: U01AA020780, U01AA021989, U01AA021989-05S1, U24AA020778, U24AA020779, and K01AA024068.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center on Gender Equity and Health, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Jennifer A. Wagman & Anita Raj

  2. Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Jeffrey H. Samet

  3. Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Jeffrey H. Samet

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Debbie M. Cheng

  5. Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Natalia Gnatienko

  6. Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology of Addictions, First Pavlov State Medical University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Elena Blokhina, Olga Toussova & Dmitry Lioznov

  7. Biostatistics and Epidemiology Data Analytics Center, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Leah S. Forman

  8. Research Institute of Influenza, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Dmitry Lioznov

  9. Section of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine and Harborview Hospital, Seattle, WA, USA

    Judith I. Tsui

  10. Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0507, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0507, USA

    Jennifer A. Wagman

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  1. Jennifer A. Wagman
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  2. Jeffrey H. Samet
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  10. Judith I. Tsui
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Correspondence to Jennifer A. Wagman.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional and/or National Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Wagman, J.A., Samet, J.H., Cheng, D.M. et al. Female Gender and HIV Transmission Risk Behaviors Among People Living with HIV Who Have Ever Used Injection Drugs in St. Petersburg, Russia. AIDS Behav 22, 2830–2839 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2149-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2149-7

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