Present but not accounted for: Identifying and addressing the needs of non-heterosexually identified women with HIV in interventions targeted to women with HIV

Background

Heterosexual women are the focus of most sexual risk reduction interventions targeted to HIV-positive women. Thus, HIV-positive women who do not identify as heterosexual are likely to have unique sexual risk reduction needs that go unaddressed in interventions targeted to women. This presentation focuses on the risk behaviors of non-heterosexually identified (NHI) women in the Protect and Respect program, a research intervention designed to decrease the sexual risk behaviors of HIV-positive women through tests of the efficacy of provider and group-delivered safer sex messages. Participants complete a computerized evaluation assessment at four time points to measure their HIV knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

Methods

Descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact chi-square tests, and Mann Whitney tests were used to describe the NHI women and to compare the heterosexually-identified (HI) and NHI subsample. Analyses focus on baseline data from a subsample (n = 32) of NHI women in Protect and Respect (N = 185). Like the larger sample, the NHI women were mostly poor (81%), African-American (81%), and between the ages of 30 and 49 (78%).

Methods

Results demonstrated that compared with their HI counterparts, the NHI women were more likely (p < .05) to report that they acquired HIV from needles; obtained their income from sex work, hustling, or selling drugs; and to report a higher mean number of male sex partners in the past six months.

Conclusion

There is a critical need for more research about the risk behaviors of HIV-positive NHI women, and interventions to address their risk reduction needs.