Research suggests that women criminal offenders have elevated rates of AIDS risk behaviors, including intravenous drug use and unsafe sex practices. The primary goal of the proposed study is to comprehensively examine AIDS risk behaviors and their correlates among 800 recently incarcerated women in North Carolina. The second, and related, goal is to determine the relationships of the substance abuse disorders with each other and with other psychiatric disorders in this population. The specific study aims are to: 1) develop estimates of the prevalence rates of AIDS risk behaviors among recently incarcerated women in North Carolina, including being an intravenous drug user, needle sharing, and engaging in unsafe sexual practices; 2) determine the interrelationships among these various HIV associated behaviors and the onset sequence of AIDS risk behaviors; 3) test for bivariate relationships and model (using multivariate analyses) the relationships between AIDS risk behaviors and other possible risk factors for AIDS-related behaviors. Independent variables will include: demographics, presence of specific psychiatric disorders and classes of psychiatric disorders, history of having been assaulted, level of knowledge of AIDS risk, previous mental health or alcohol treatment, social support, level of alcohol use, and level of self-esteem; 4) assess the presence of specific psychiatric disorders (including drug and alcohol abuse and dependence) and use these data in bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine the rates, antecedents, and behavioral outcomes of the co-occurrence of different types of substance abuse, the co-occurrence of substance abuse with the specific psychiatric disorders, and the co-occurrence of different types of substance abuse with the exhibition of AIDS risk behaviors. The proposed study is perhaps most important because it will expand our knowledge of the background factors that influence the exhibition of the individual behaviors and sets of behaviors that place not only the female criminal offender but also those she interacts with at risk for developing HIV infection. The study is most significant in a public policy sense because it can provide information that can be used to target high-risk individuals and groups for education, treatment, or other programs to reduce behaviors that may spread AIDS among and by this high-risk group.
| Jordan, B Kathleen; Federman, E Belle; Burns, Barbara J et al. (2002) Lifetime use of mental health and substance abuse treatment services by incarcerated women felons. Psychiatr Serv 53:317-25 |
| Cotten-Oldenburg, N U; Jordan, B K; Martin, S L et al. (1999) Voluntary HIV testing in prison: do women inmates at high risk for HIV accept HIV testing? AIDS Educ Prev 11:28-37 |
| Cotten-Oldenburg, N U; Jordan, B K; Martin, S L et al. (1999) Women inmates' risky sex and drug behaviors: are they related? Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 25:129-49 |
| Jordan, B K; Schlenger, W E; Fairbank, J A et al. (1996) Prevalence of psychiatric disorders among incarcerated women. II. Convicted felons entering prison. Arch Gen Psychiatry 53:513-9 |
