HIV sex and drug risk behavior and behavior change in a national sample of injection drug and crack cocaine using women

This paper describes HIV sex and drug risk behavior and behavior change of injection drug and crack cocaine using women enrolled in a national multi-site Cooperative Agreement program. Baseline data on the 1403 women who were randomly assigned to a two session intervention that was standardized across sites indicate that sex and drug risk behavior for becoming infected with HIV was considerable. Six-month post intervention follow-up data for the same sample of women show that significant reductions in sex and drug risk behavior were observed for the entire sample of women for the risk variables under study. Significant reductions were also demonstrated for various sub-groups of women enrolled in the study on most of the sex and drug risk variables. Given these findings, it appears that the standard intervention was effective in assisting drug using women reduce their behaviors that put them at risk of becoming infected with HIV. Further research is needed on the development and evaluation of HIV interventions that target specific risk behaviors and various HIV risk behavior profiles of women.