Stigmatized drug use, sexual partner concurrency, and other sex risk network and behavior characteristics of 18-to 24-year-old youth in a high-risk neighborhood

Background: Sex risks and drug use are related. This relation in youth is d escribed. Goal: To determine how stigmatized drug use is related to sexual risk behav iors and network characteristics among youth. Study Design: In-person interviews were conducted with both a probability h ousehold sample (n = 363) and a targeted, street-recruited sample of cocain e, heroin, crack, or injected drug users (n - 165) comprising 18- to 24-yea r-olds in an inner city neighborhood. Drug use in the preceding 12 months w as scaled hierarchically, lowest to highest social stigma, as none, marijua na, noninjected cocaine, noninjected heroin, crack, and injected drugs. Results: Users of the more stigmatized drugs had more sex partners. They we re more likely to report a history of concurrent sex partners, sex with som eone who also had engaged in sex with a network member, commercial sex work , and unprotected sex. Findings showed crack use and drug injection to be a ssociated more strongly with increased sex risk among women than among men. Conclusions: Young users of the more stigmatized drugs are at much greater network and behavior risk for sexually transmitted diseases. Drug use preve ntion, harm reduction interventions, or both may lower this risk.