Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110373

Jordan W. Edwards, BA¹, Dennis G. Fisher, PhD¹, Grace L. Reynolds, DPA¹, Michael A. Janson, BA², Pamela C. Ogata, MPH², and Adi Jaffe, BA¹. (1) Center for Behavioral Research & Services, California State University, Long Beach, 1090 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90813, 562-495-2330, jordanedwards@charter.net, (2) Office of AIDS Programs and Policy, Los Angeles County Dept. of Health Services, 600 S. Commonwealth Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90005

Objective: To describe individuals accessing HIV programs funded by Los Angeles County who self-report they are transgender or transsexual. Methods: LA County uses the Countywide Risk Assessment Survey (CRAS) annually to assess sexual risk and drug use behaviors of individuals receiving HIV prevention services. In May of 2004, 51 HIV prevention service providers completed 2,126 face-to-face interviews using the CRAS survey. This survey used two-tiered sampling that included both stratified and systematic sampling. Complete data from 2,069 responses were used in the analysis, of whom 92 were male-to-female transgender, 9 were male-to-female transsexual, and 3 were female-to-male transgender. These categories were collapsed for analysis purposes. Results: Logistic regression was used to predict membership in the Transgender (TG) group of current HIV prevention clients. “Risk” factors include: use of steroids or hormones in the last 6 months (OR=13.7, CI=7.56, 24.83), ever received offensive comments because of sexual orientation (OR=9.8, CI=5.01, 19.08, intention to use a needle after someone else (OR=9.5, CI=1.53, 59.56), ever been paid for sex (OR=4.8, CI=2.93, 7.93), ever receive HIV testing/counseling (OR=2.2, CI=1.35, 3.27), “Protective” factor is: use of heroin within six months (OR=.06, CI=.01, .32). Conclusions: Transgender clients are much more likely than other clients to have been the victim of verbal stigmatization, they are also at higher needle and commercial sex risk for HIV infection, which they may recognize by utilizing HIV testing services at a significantly higher rate. Contrary to other reports, transgender clients in this sample were significantly less likely to use heroin.

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