Approximately 1 to 1.5 million people are infected with HIV in the United States. The incidence of AIDS/HIV is increasing among women and children. Many births, occurring among women at risk for HIV, are unplanned and may be prevented. Little information, however, exists regarding the determinants of conception decisions. The proposed study will empirically examine the relationship between specific social psychological and demographic factors on pregnancy intentions and subsequent pregnancy status of women at risk for HIV.
The specific aims of this research include: 1) to determine the role of psychosocial and demographic factors, and knowledge of HIV serostatus in predicting pregnancy intentions and subsequent pregnancy status; 2) to assess the psychometric properties of the study variables; and 3) to determine whether the psychosocial, demographic, HIV serostatus and barrier contraceptive use variables can discriminate between women with planned and unplanned pregnancies.
These aims are designed to enhance research and information about women at risk for acquiring HIV. A longitudinal data set obtained from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse will be used to examine the role that social psychological and demographic factors play in explaining women's pregnancy intentions at baseline and pregnancy status at follow-up. Sevens' five percent of this nationwide sample are minority women reached by extensive outreach methods. Analyses will encompass descriptive statistics, principal component and factor analyses to construct scales and indexes, and tests of multivariable models using logistic regression. Findings from this research can help in preventing the incidence of unintended pregnancy among women at high risk for HIV and thus reducing the number of HIV in children.
