Gender differences in sex risk behaviors among Ukraine injection drug users.
OBJECTIVE
To assess gender differences in drug and sex risk behaviors and evaluate predictors of HIV-related sex risk behaviors among heterosexual injection drug users (IDUs) in Ukraine.


METHODS
Street-recruited IDUs from Kiev, Odessa, and Makeevka/Donesk, Ukraine.


METHODS
From June 2004 through November 2006, outreach workers recruited 1557 IDUs, including 526 from Kiev, 494 from Odessa, and 537 from Makeevka/Donesk. Participants were administered a standardized computer-assisted interview assessing HIV-related drug and sex risk behaviors, self-efficacy for practicing safe sex, and HIV knowledge.


RESULTS
Overall, 80% of the participants were sexually active in the 30-day period before their interview. They also engaged in high-risk sex behaviors during this brief 30-day window: 53% reported anal or vaginal sex without a condom, 27% had sex with more than 1 partner, 41% had an IDU sex partner, and 37% had an HIV-positive sex partner or a partner whose HIV status they did not know. Overall, women were at higher risk than men and were more likely to have been told they were HIV-positive.


CONCLUSIONS
The extremely high HIV prevalence rate in Ukraine and in this cohort, combined with their recent high-risk sex behaviors, forecasts not only a continuance of the epidemic in the region but an escalation.
Booth
Robert E
RE
Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO, USA. robert.booth@UCHSC.edu
Lehman
Wayne E
WE
Brewster
John T
JT
Sinitsyna
Larisa
L
Dvoryak
Sergey
S
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000453:epidemiology; D014455:Ukraine / Q000453:epidemiology; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*