HIV SEROSTATUS AND RISK BEHAVIORS IN A MULTISITE SAMPLE OF DRUG-USERS

In developing HIV prevention efforts, it is critical to determine whet her interventions are effective in achieving declines in risk behavior among both HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals. Based on a mult isite intervention study of injection drug users (IDUs) and crack smok ers, 488 seropositive IDUs and 364 seropositive crack users were compa red with randomly selected matched samples of seronegatives (with matc hing based on recruitment site, gender, age group and ethnicity) at ba seline and six-month follow-up to compare changes in risk behaviors by serostatus. Results indicated that overall. risk behaviors declined s ubstantially over time; significant interaction effects indicated that seropositives reported a greater decline in sex risk behaviors than s eronegatives. These data support the utility of HIV testing for high-r isk drug users, and indicate that interventions have produced reductio ns in risk behaviors of both seropositives and seronegatives. Further research on the impact of site seroprevalence, and to enhance our unde rstanding of those who continue to engage in risky behaviors, is neede d.