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Sexual Risk and Transmission Behaviors, Partnerships and Settings Among Young Adult Nonmedical Opioid Users in New York City

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Abstract

Nonmedical prescription opioid use has become widespread. It can lead to heroin use, drug injection and HIV infection. We describe young adult opioid users’ sexual risk behavior, partnerships and settings. 464 youth aged 18–29 who reported opioid use in the past 30 days were recruited using Respondent-Driven Sampling. Eligible participants completed a computer-assisted, interviewer-administered risk questionnaire and were tested for STIs and HIV. Participants (33% female; 66% white non-Hispanic) almost all had sex in the prior 90 days; 42% reported more than one partner. Same-sex sex was reported by 3% of men and 10% of women. Consistent condom use was rare. Seven percent reported group sex participation in the last 90 days but lifetime group sex was common among men and women. Young opioid users’ unprotected sex, multiple partners and group sex puts them and others at high HIV and STI risk.

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Acknowledgements

The project described was supported by Award Number R01DA035146 and P30DA011041 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. All authors received salary support from R01DA035146 except Dr. Ruggles, who received support as a consultant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Infectious Disease Research, National Development and Research Institutes, 71 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    S. R. Friedman, P. Mateu-Gelabert, E. Goodbody, C. Syckes & H. Guarino

  2. Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    K. V. Ruggles

  3. Silver School of Social Work, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    L. Jessell

  4. Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Jennifer Teubl

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  1. S. R. Friedman
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  2. P. Mateu-Gelabert
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  3. K. V. Ruggles
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  4. E. Goodbody
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  5. C. Syckes
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  6. L. Jessell
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  7. Jennifer Teubl
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  8. H. Guarino
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Correspondence to S. R. Friedman.

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We declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Research was conducted with oversight provided by the Institutional Review Board of National Development and Research Institute, Inc.

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Friedman, S.R., Mateu-Gelabert, P., Ruggles, K.V. et al. Sexual Risk and Transmission Behaviors, Partnerships and Settings Among Young Adult Nonmedical Opioid Users in New York City. AIDS Behav 21, 994–1003 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1672-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-016-1672-7

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