title: Sexual Risk and Transmission Behaviors, Partnerships and Settings Among Young Adult Nonmedical Opioid Users in New York City.
abstract: Nonmedical prescription opioid use has become widespread. It can lead to heroin use, drug injection and HIV infection. We describe young adult opioid users' sexual risk behavior, partnerships and settings. 464 youth aged 18-29 who reported opioid use in the past 30 days were recruited using Respondent-Driven Sampling. Eligible participants completed a computer-assisted, interviewer-administered risk questionnaire and were tested for STIs and HIV. Participants (33% female; 66% white non-Hispanic) almost all had sex in the prior 90 days; 42% reported more than one partner. Same-sex sex was reported by 3% of men and 10% of women. Consistent condom use was rare. Seven percent reported group sex participation in the last 90 days but lifetime group sex was common among men and women. Young opioid users' unprotected sex, multiple partners and group sex puts them and others at high HIV and STI risk.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Disease Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA. friedman@ndri.org.
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Disease Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mateu-Gelabert
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: K V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Ruggles
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Disease Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goodbody
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Disease Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Syckes
authors.affiliation: Silver School of Social Work, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jessell
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Teubl
authors.affiliation: Institute for Infectious Disease Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guarino
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009294:Narcotics; D009519:New York City; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012931:Social Environment; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics
keywords: Group sex; HIV; Nonmedical prescription opioid users; People who use drugs; STIs; Sexual behaviors and networks