title: Sources of bias in perception of HIV risk by injecting drug-users.
abstract: The role of bias in assessments of personal susceptibility to threat is a central concept in research on perception of risk. The current study aimed to clarify the association between perceived personal susceptibility to infection with HIV/AIDS and injecting risk behaviour with injecting drug-users' perception of the baseline rate of infection with HIV/AIDS. 1262 injecting drug-users from Australian cities were interviewed. The injecting drug-users were divided into high- and low-risk groups depending on the HIV/AIDS risk associated with their injecting behaviour. Subjects were subdivided into low-, medium-, and high-perceived personal susceptibility groups. Analysis indicated that injecting drug-users in the high-risk group underestimated the prevalence of HIV/AIDS infection relative to those in the low-risk group and that perceived personal susceptibility was rationally related to estimates of the baseline rate of infection.
authors.affiliation: National Centre in HIV/AIDS Social Research, School of Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kelaher
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001315:Australia; D004198:Disease Susceptibility / Q000523:psychology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology* / Q000635:transmission; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000523:psychology; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D012309:Risk-Taking; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*