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

Abstract #118153

Lawrence Ouellet, PhD, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-355-0145, ljo@uic.edu, Dita Broz, MPH, School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 W. Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60612, and Susan L. Bailey, PhD, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 W Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60612.

Objectives: Because chronic heroin use is associated with diminished sexual activity, HIV prevention interventions may assume heroin use among young people lacks a sexual component aside from prostitution. We examine that assumption. Methods: NIHU 16-30 years old were recruited in Chicago through street outreach and respondent-driven sampling. Data were collected through computerized self-administered interviews and qualitative interviews. Results: Of 668 participants, 58% are African-American, 22% non-Hispanic white, 63% male, and median age is 26. Most (78%) participants were sexually active. In the 30 days before baseline, 60% (n=270) of those with a main partner reported having sex 15 or more times and only 14% reported lack of interest in sex when using heroin. Overall, 43% of participants said they ever “had used heroin to make sex better” and 53% of males had used heroin to prolong sex. Men more often than women used heroin to make sex better (X2=10.2, df=1, p<0.002), and African American and Hispanic males were more likely than White males to have used heroin to prolong sex (X2=5.5, df=1, p<0.019). Qualitative interviews (n=56) suggest that NIHUs' ideas about heroin's positive affects on sex often initiate from other users rather than personal experience. Conclusion: Heroin use to enhance sex is common at some point in the heroin use careers of young NIHU and attracts some users to the drug. Interventions targeting HIV sex risk practices should not assume that heroin users tend to be sexually inactive or that heroin is not used as a part of sexual activity.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe demographic characteristics of young non-injecting heroin users
• Describe extent of use of heroin by young non-injecting heroin users to prolong or enhance sexual activity
• Identify differences between groups in use of heroin to enhance sexual activity

Keywords: HIV Risk Behavior, Drug Use

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.