title: Rates and correlates of HIV and STI infection among homeless women.
abstract: We studied the prevalence of biologically confirmed HIV, Chlamydia, and gonorrhea in a randomly selected sample of sheltered homeless women in New York City, and explored their association with demographic, homeless history, and clinical risk factors. 329 women were randomly selected from 28 family and single adult shelters. The estimated prevalence of HIV in the study sample is 0.6 % (±0.3 %); for Chlamydia it is 6.7 % (±2.2 %); for gonorrhea it is 0.9 % (±0.04 %). A history of childhood sexual abuse, arrest history, current psychotic symptoms, and substance use disorder placed women at greater risk of infection. We consider contextual factors that may yield underestimates of HIV prevalence in our sample and discuss how a more comprehensive prevalence estimate might be constructed. Findings underscore the importance of offering HIV/STI testing, counseling, and HIV risk prevention interventions to homeless women and suggest that interventions should be tailored to the needs of specific subgroups of homeless women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. clc3@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Carol L M
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Caton
authors.forename: Nabila
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: El-Bassel
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gelman
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barrow
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Herman
authors.forename: Eustace
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Ana Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: Tochterman
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Felix
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006069:Gonorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D015231:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology