Sexual behavior of drug-users: is it different?
BACKGROUND
Across the world, drug-users (DU) have been shown to be at greater risk of contracting and transmitting sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection. However, in the metropolitan cities of India, where drug-use patterns may uniquely vary between injection and noninjection, depending on drug availability, little is known about the risk behavior of drug-users.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the study was to find out whether drug-users are more likely to practice high-risk sexual behavior compared to non-drug users.


METHODS
The sexual behavior of 70 drug-users, selected by snowball sampling, was compared with 128 age- and economic status-matched controls (non-drug-users), randomly selected from the same community.


RESULTS
Seventy-eight percent sexually active drug-users and 43% sexually active non-drug-users had multiple sex partners (P < 0.02). The average number of sex partners was significantly higher among the drug-users (P = 0.05). Anal intercourse was practiced by 25.7% drug-users and 8.6% non-drug-users (OR = 3.7; P < 0.01). The drug-users were 6.7 times more likely to visit commercial sex workers (P < 0.0001). Sexually transmitted disease prevalence was higher among the drug-users (P < 0.003).


CONCLUSIONS
Notwithstanding the small sample size, this study shows that drug-users practice high-risk sexual behavior more frequently. Interventions, in the form of awareness generation and prevention education programs, are required in order to reduce risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV transmission among drug-users.
Sharma
Arun Kumar
AK
Department of Community Medicine, University College of Medical Sciences, Sahadara, Delhi 110 095, India. tingu98@hotmail.com
Aggarwal
O P
OP
Dubey
K K
KK
D000328:Adult; D017280:Condoms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*