HIV prevention interventions have not delivered the desired level of behavior change to female offenders for several reasons: the women may not perceive any need for interventions; the interventions may not appear relevant to their specific needs, or there may be client, setting, and environmental factors precluding enrollment, engagement and retention. Responding to RFA-DA-04-015, this project explores factors related to engagement in prevention efforts to develop behavioral interventions adapted specifically to female, drug-abusing offenders. Deconstructing HIV Interventions Among Female Offenders aims to understand what components of an intervention developed for drug using women are particularly relevant for female offenders sentenced to community-based Court supervision. With this insight, we will restructure existing HIV prevention interventions for these women. To deconstruct aspects of the intervention that hold the greatest likelihood for success for this specific at-risk population, our team proposes to: 1. Conduct secondary analyses of a recently recruited sample of women in the St. Louis Female Drug Court to determine: a. Differences in the characteristics of women (including demographic, sexual behavior, and medical, psychiatric and substance use) enrolled from the Drug Court compared with non-offending women recruited from an HIV prevention study (DA11622); b. The client-level, environmental and intervention process factors associated with intervention participation and compliance, as well as attrition at the 4 and 12-month follow-up among both female drug-using offenders and Non-offenders. 2. Re-interview a subset of female offenders using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to ascertain the most salient factors predicting participation and compliance. 3. Synthesize the results of aims 1 and 2 to revise our intervention specifically for female drug using offenders at high risk for HIV/AIDS, for a future study of behavior change.
| Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia A; Spitznagel, Edward L; Schootman, Mario et al. (2009) Risky sexual behaviors and sexually transmitted diseases: a comparison study of cocaine-dependent individuals in treatment versus a community-matched sample. AIDS Patient Care STDS 23:727-34 |
| DuBois, James M; Callahan O'Leary, Catina; Cottler, Linda B (2009) The attitudes of females in drug court toward additional safeguards in HIV prevention research. Prev Sci 10:345-52 |
