title: Intimate partner violence and risky sexual behaviors among Iranian women with substance use disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intimate partner violence (IPV) and risky sexual behaviors are serious and overlapping public health problems that disproportionately affect drug-involved women. Despite the fact that drug-using women experience extensive IPV, to date, no studies have investigated the association of IPV and risky sexual behaviors among drug-using women in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  Drug-using women (N =120) were recruited from a rehabilitation center in Tehran from March to October, 2009. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2), a standardized questionnaire, was used to collect data regarding violence. We used t-test and logistic regression models to explore the relationship between IPV domains and specific sexual risk behavior outcomes using SPSS 21.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The means (sd) for CTS2 domains were as follows: negotiation 4.29 (1.55), psychological violence 2.55 (1.51), sexual violence 0.37 (1.00), physical abuse 1.17 (1.49), injury 2.18 (1.97), and the mean total score was 1.69 (0.96). We found significantly higher injury scores, but lower sexual abuse scores among women with sexually-transmitted infection (STI) compared to women without STI (p-values 0.030 and <0.0001, respectively). In addition, we found that psychological abuse was positively associated with STI (p-value 0.03) and increased condom use (p = 0.010), possibly mediated through an increased likelihood of having multiple partners.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings revealed that in Iran drug-involved women experience high rates of IPV and that IPV is associated with increased risky sexual behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preventive interventions for violence that are integrated within drug treatment programs, as well as harm reduction programs are highly recommended.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Iranian National Center of Addiction Studies (INCAS), Institution of Risk Behavior Reduction, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Effat_mer@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Effat
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Merghati-Khoei
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran. srimaz2000@yahoo.com .
authors.forename: Shahnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rimaz
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston South Carolina, United States. korte@musc.edu .
authors.forename: Jeffrey E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Korte
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Clinical Neuroscience Division, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston South Carolina, United States. backs@musc.edu .
authors.forename: Sudie E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Back
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Clinical and Translational Research. Director, South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Charleston South Carolina, United States. bradyk@musc.edu.
authors.forename: Kathleen T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Brady
authors.affiliation: Member of the Islamic City Council of Tehran Director of Health Division in the City Council, Tehran, Iran. mabad411@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Masoumeh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abad
authors.affiliation: Research Assistant, Iranian National Center of Addiction Studies (INCAS), Institution of Risk Behavior Reduction, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. shamsalizadehn@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Neda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shamsalizadeh
keywords: Drug-use; Intimate Partner Violence; Iranian women