Incarceration and unstable housing interact to predict sexual risk behaviours among African American STD clinic patients

Laura Widman; Seth M. Noar; Carol E. Golin; Jessica F. Willoughby; Richard Crosby

doi:10.1177/0956462413505999

Incarceration and unstable housing interact to predict sexual risk behaviours among African American STD clinic patients

Laura Widman
, Seth M. Noar
, Carol E. Golin
, Jessica F. Willoughby
, Richard Crosby

Health, Behavior, and Society

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Given the dramatic racial disparities in the rates of HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among African Americans, understanding broader structural factors that increase the risk for HIV/STIs is crucial. This study investigated incarceration history and unstable housing as two structural predictors of HIV risk behaviour among 293 African Americans (159 men/134 women, mean age = 27). Participants were recruited from an urban sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic in the southeastern U.S. Approximately half the sample had been incarcerated in their lifetime (54%), and 43% had been unstably housed in the past six months. Incarceration was independently associated with the number of sex partners and the frequency of unprotected sex. Unstable housing was independently associated with the frequency of unprotected sex. However, these main effects were qualified by significant interactions: individuals with a history of incarceration and more unstable housing had more sex partners and more unprotected sex in the past three months than individuals without these structural barriers. Implications for structural-level interventions are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	348-354
Number of pages	7
Journal	International Journal of STD and AIDS
Volume	25
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0956462413505999
State	Published - Apr 2014

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by a Research Support Grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research and funds from the College of Communications and Information Studies at the University of Kentucky. This work was also supported in part by funding from NIH/NIAID 5 T32 AI07001-34: Training in Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV, support from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NIH grant UL1TR000083), and support from the UNC Center for AIDS Research (NIH grant P30AI50410).

Funding

This work was supported by a Research Support Grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research and funds from the College of Communications and Information Studies at the University of Kentucky. This work was also supported in part by funding from NIH/NIAID 5 T32 AI07001-34: Training in Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV, support from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NIH grant UL1TR000083), and support from the UNC Center for AIDS Research (NIH grant P30AI50410).

Funders	Funder number
College of Communications and Information Studies at the University of Kentucky
Office of the Vice President for Research
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases	5 T32 AI07001-34
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Center for Research Resources
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)	UL1TR001111, UL1TR000083
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
Center for AIDS Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	P30AI50410
Center for AIDS Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Keywords

HIV/AIDS
housing
incarceration
racial disparities
sexual risk behaviour
sexually transmitted infections
structural factors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Dermatology
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Pharmacology (medical)
Infectious Diseases

Access to Document

10.1177/0956462413505999

Cite this

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title = "Incarceration and unstable housing interact to predict sexual risk behaviours among African American STD clinic patients",

abstract = "Given the dramatic racial disparities in the rates of HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among African Americans, understanding broader structural factors that increase the risk for HIV/STIs is crucial. This study investigated incarceration history and unstable housing as two structural predictors of HIV risk behaviour among 293 African Americans (159 men/134 women, mean age = 27). Participants were recruited from an urban sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic in the southeastern U.S. Approximately half the sample had been incarcerated in their lifetime (54\%), and 43\% had been unstably housed in the past six months. Incarceration was independently associated with the number of sex partners and the frequency of unprotected sex. Unstable housing was independently associated with the frequency of unprotected sex. However, these main effects were qualified by significant interactions: individuals with a history of incarceration and more unstable housing had more sex partners and more unprotected sex in the past three months than individuals without these structural barriers. Implications for structural-level interventions are discussed.",

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Incarceration and unstable housing interact to predict sexual risk behaviours among African American STD clinic patients

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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