35 research outputs found
HIV Risks and Seroprevalence Among Mexican American Injection Drug Users in California
Latinos in the United States are an ethnically diverse group disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. We describe HIV seroprevalence, HIV risk behaviors and utilization of health services among Mexican American injection drug users (IDUs) in California (nĀ =Ā 286) and compare them to White (nĀ =Ā 830) and African American (nĀ =Ā 314) IDUs. Study participants were recruited from syringe exchange programs (nĀ =Ā 24) in California. HIV seroprevalence among Mexican Americans (0.5%) was dramatically lower than Whites (5%) and African Americans (8%). Mexican Americans reported fewer sex-related risks than Whites and African Americans though injection-related risks remained high. Compared to Whites, Mexican Americans were more likely to participate in drug treatment during a 6Ā month period (AOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1, 2.0) but less likely to receive any health care (AOR 0.6, 95% CI 0.5, 0.8). Exploring cultural and structural factors among Mexican American IDUs may offer new insights into how to maintain low rates of HIV seroprevalence and reduce barriers to health care utilization
Frecuencia y variables asociadas a estigma-discriminaciĆ³n percibido en vĆctimas del conflicto armado colombiano
Experiences of Latinos with limited English proficiency with patient registration systems and their interactions with clinic front office staff: an exploratory study to inform community-based translational research in North Carolina
Involving hard-to-reach ethnic minorities in low-budget health research: lessons from a health survey among Moluccans in the Netherlands
Substance Abuse, Acculturation, and HIV Risk among Caribbean-Born Immigrants in the United States
Sending-Country Violence and Receiving-Country Discrimination: Effects on the Health of Colombian Refugees in Ecuador
Adulterants and altruism: A qualitative investigation of ādrug checkersā in North America
Background: āDrug checkingā has become a common harm reduction method used to test illicit substances, such as ecstasy, for purity and/or the presence of adulterants. Formal drug-checking services have been operating for decades, and the use of personal reagent test kits appears to be relatively common; however, little attention has been devoted to understanding the role and broader experiences of ādrug-checkersā (i.e., people who test their own and/or other people's substances). As such, it remains unknown who is engaging in this practice, their motivations for drug-checking, and what barriers they may experience. We addressed this research gap by interviewing people who check drugs about their experiences, with a goal of better understanding drug checking practices. Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 32 adults in North America who reported testing drugs. Coding was conducted in an inductive manner and thematic analysis was used to identify relevant themes. Results: Over half (56.2%) of our sample was affiliated with a drug checking organization. Among non-affiliated checkers (43.8%), the majority (57.1%) tested for friends, 21.4% tested only for themselves, and 21.4% were people who sold drugs and tested for their clients. Motivations were driven largely by altruism, described by checkers as wanting to protect their peers from exposure to adulterants. People interviewed who sold drugs were altruistic in the same manner. Barriers to checkingāparticularly at nightclubs and festivalsāincluded perceived illegality of test kits and denied approval to test drugs at venues, although many checkers circumvented this barrier by checking drugs without such approval. Conclusions: Drug checkers in North America seek to educate people who use drugs about the risk of exposure to unexpected substance types, but they face various barriers. Policy change could help ensure that these potentially life-saving services can be provided without fear of fines and/or criminal prosecution
Development and psychometric evaluation of a condom use self-efficacy measure in Spanish and English
BACKGROUND: Condom self-efficacy is an important construct for HIV/STI prevention and intervention. A psychometrically sound measure of the self-efficacy for using condoms that has been designed for Hispanic women to respond in Spanish or English is needed. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief self-report measure of condom use self-efficacy. METHODS: We developed a 15-item measure of condom use self-efficacy based on expert knowledge of measurement and HIV/STI prevention with Hispanic women using a translation-back translation approach. Participants were 320 Hispanic women from the Southeastern U.S. RESULTS: Internal consistency of the full measure was .92. A short form of the instrument with a subset of 5 items also had acceptable internal consistency, alpha = .80, and was significantly correlated with the full scale, r(s) = .93, p < .001. A single latent factor explained 9 ā 48% of the variation in these items. Evidence of construct validity of the short form was provided by correlations of the scale with two self-report measures of condom use: r(s) = .34** with condom use, r(s) = .37** with condom use during vaginal sex. CONCLUSIONS: Either the full measure or the five-item measure could be used in studies where condom use is an important behavioral outcome, such as evaluating prevention interventions, with Hispanic women. Future studies should examine the performance of this measure with other groups, including Hispanic men and members of other ethnic and language groups