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Query: UMLS:C0019693 (HIV)
 170,526 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

High rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are seen in women prisoners. These high rates may be related to the nature of their lives, which may include violence, substance abuse, promiscuity, prostitution, and exchange of sex for drugs--all of which increase their risk for acquiring HIV. The purpose of this study was to examine the HIV-related risk behaviors and protective practices of women prisoners in a rural southern state and factors related to these behaviors. The sample included 57 women incarcerated in a medium-to-maximum security prison. Key findings included high rates of substance abuse, extensive past and current violent experiences including sexual abuse, high percentage of multiple partners, and low use of condoms. Additionally, women in this sample did not perceive themselves to be at risk for HIV infection. Practical suggestions for reducing the HIV risks of incarcerated women are offered.
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PMID:The lives of incarcerated women: violence, substance abuse, and at risk for HIV. 1054 75

This study examines the relationship between a number of sexual partners and selected health risk behaviors among public high school students. 56 schools took part in the study with approximately 125 participants from each school. A total of 3805 respondents (52% female, 48% males) were included in the final analysis that consisted of 1506 Black students and 2299 White students. The findings showed that a significant number of public high school students are engaging in sexual intercourse. Black males had the highest percentage (88%) engaging in sexual intercourse, followed by Black females (70%), White males (61%), and White females (52%). Furthermore, an increased number of sexual intercourse partners were correlated with certain risk behaviors that place adolescents at risk for unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted infections. The strongest predictors of an increased number or sexual partners for White females were alcohol, tobacco, marijuana use, and dating violence; Black females had similar predictors with the addition of physical fighting. For White males, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana use, physical fighting, carrying weapons, and dating violence were the strongest predictors of an increased number of sex partners. Black males have similar predictors with the addition of binge alcohol use. These findings suggest the need for a comprehensive prevention program that focuses on adolescent behavior changes and environmental modifications.
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PMID:Relationship between number of sexual intercourse partners and selected health risk behaviors among public high school adolescents. 1055 63

The article examines the relationship between reproductive health and intimate partner violence. Through the conference conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with other government agencies and private organizations, it has been demonstrated that while there is an increased awareness of intimate partner violence as a public health issue, there has been limited research on the potential association of violence to women's reproductive health. Furthermore, there are few consistent findings that can be used to aid in the development and evaluation of effective interventions to reduce intimate partner violence as part of an overall strategy of improving women's reproductive health. Most recent information suggests potential associations between violence and a variety of reproductive health indicators, such as sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, birth outcomes, and unintended pregnancies. However, the nature of these associations remains unclear and requires further investigation.
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PMID:Reproductive health and intimate partner violence. 1061 21

The purpose of this paper is to review the available literature on the intersections between HIV and violence and present an agenda for future research to guide policy and programs. This paper aims to answer four questions: (1) How does forced sex affect women's risk for HIV infection? (2) How do violence and threats of violence affect women's ability to negotiate condom use? (3) Is the risk of violence greater for women living with HIV infection than for noninfected women? (4) What are the implications of the existing evidence for the direction of future research and interventions? Together this collection of 29 studies from the US and from sub-Saharan Africa provides evidence for several different links between the epidemics of HIV and violence. However, there are a number of methodological limitations that can be overcome with future studies. First, additional prospective studies are needed to describe the ways which violence victimization may increase women's risk for HIV and how being HIV positive affects violence risk. Future studies need to describe men's perspective on both HIV risk and violence in order to develop effective interventions targeting men and women. The definitions and tools for measurement of concepts such as physical violence, forced sex, HIV risk, and serostatus disclosure need to be harmonized in the future. Finally, combining qualitative and quantitative research methods will help to describe the context and scope of the problem. The service implications of these studies are significant. HIV counseling and testing programs offer a unique opportunity to identify and assist women at risk for violence and to identify women who may be at high risk for HIV as a result of their history of assault. In addition, violence prevention programs, in settings where such programs exist, also offer opportunities to counsel women about their risks for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.
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PMID:The intersections of HIV and violence: directions for future research and interventions. 1064

This paper provides a detailed account of the social organisation of commercial sex work in a squatter camp in a South African gold mining community. On the basis of in-depth interviews with 21 women, living in conditions of poverty and violence, the paper examines factors which might serve to help or hinder a newly implemented community-based peer education and condom distribution project aimed at vulnerable single women. Attention is given to the way in which the routine organisation of sex workers' everyday working and living conditions, as well as the strategies they use to construct positive social identities despite working in the most stigmatised of professions, serve to undermine their confidence in their ability to insist on condom use in sexual encounters with reluctant clients. However, even amongst this disadvantaged group of women, the interviews suggest that the tendency to speak of women's 'powerlessness' (as is the case in many studies of African women in the context of the HIV epidemic) is unduly simplistic and fails to take account of the range of coping strategies and social support networks that women have constructed to deal with their day to day life challenges. These strategies and networks could serve as potentially strong resources for community-based sexual health promotion programmes.
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PMID:Selling sex in the time of AIDS: the psycho-social context of condom use by sex workers on a Southern African mine. 1064 1

The Transtheoretical, or Stages of Change Model, has been applied to the investigation of help-seeking related to a number of addictive behaviors. Overall, the model has shown to be very important in understanding the process of help-seeking. However, substance abuse rarely exists in isolation from other health, mental health, and social problems. The present work extends the original Stages of Change Model by proposing "Steps of Change" as they relate to entry into substance abuse treatment programs for women. Readiness to make life changes in four domains-domestic violence, HIV sexual risk behavior, substance abuse, and mental health-is examined in relation to entry into four substance abuse treatment modalities (12-step, detoxification, outpatient, and residential). The Steps of Change Model hypothesizes that help-seeking behavior of substance-abusing women may reflect a hierarchy of readiness based on the immediacy, or time urgency, of their treatment issues. For example, women in battering relationships may be ready to make changes to reduce their exposure to violence before admitting readiness to seek substance abuse treatment. The Steps of Change Model was examined in a sample of 451 women contacted through a substance abuse treatment-readiness program in Los Angeles, California. A series of logistic regression analyses predict entry into four separate treatment modalities that vary. Results suggest a multidimensional Stages of Change Model that may extend to other populations and to other types of help-seeking behaviors.
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PMID:Women's steps of change and entry into drug abuse treatment. A multidimensional stages of change model. 1074 36

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development developed international consensus amongst health providers, policy makers, and group representing the whole of civil society regarding the concept of reproductive health and its definition. In line with this definition, reproductive health care is defined as the constellation of methods, techniques and services that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive health problems. Reproductive health care saves lives and prevents significant levels of morbidity through family planning programmes, antenatal, delivery and post-natal services, prevention and management programmes for reproductive tract infections (including sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS), prevention of abortion and management of its complications, cancers of the reproductive system, and harmful practices that impact on reproductive function. Reproductive health care needs are evident at all stages of the life cycle and account for a greater proportion of disability adjusted life years (DALYS) in girls and women than in boys and men. Reproductive health protects infant health by enabling birth spacing and birth limitation to be practiced through family planning. The prevention and early detection of reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, through the integration of preventive measures in family planning service delivery not only improves the quality of care provided but is also directly responsible for improvement in survival and health of infants. Addressing harmful practices such as son preference, sex selection, sexual violence and female genital mutilation complements the positive impact of planned and spaced children through family planning services on infant mortality and the reproductive health of young girls and women. They are also in addition to prenatal, delivery and postnatal services, positive determinants of low maternal mortality and morbidity and are integral to the promotion of reproductive health in women of child bearing age. Reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted diseases and HIV contribute to significant level of ill-health in women of reproductive age and continue to pose a threat through the menopause which in turn brings with it increasing risk of cancers of the reproductive system.
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PMID:Reproductive health/family planning and the health of infants, girls and women. 1077 14

This article explores the meaning of sexual rights as interpreted by different stakeholders during the development of the Beijing Programme of Action and within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It illustrates how the lack of sexual rights as understood in the African context results from poverty as well as gender inequality, particularly in sexual relationships. This lack is manifested in the circumstances surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic and violence against women. In the European context, in contrast, sexual rights claims are motivated specifically in relation to sexual orientation. The article explores the extent to which these different discourses are being addressed in practice in SADC member countries and the opportunities that exist for building a concrete practice of sexual rights both in the region and internationally.
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PMID:Sexual rights in southern Africa: a Beijing discourse or a strategic necessity? 1079 73

Minority women represent the fastest growing segment of the population to acquire HIV/AIDS in the United States. Although African American women are a large proportion of this group, no published study has concentrated solely on a holistic view of the experiences of HIV-infected African American women. The primary purpose of this phenomenological pilot study was to describe the lives of five HIV-infected African American women. Audiotaped interviews were conducted and subsequently were examined, using Giorgi's steps of analysis. Twelve themes emerged from the data: violence, addiction, it couldn't happen to me, shock and denial, education, time, uncertainty, cycles, secretive nature of their lives, someone, survival, and children. It is clear, even from this small pilot study, that these women have complex experiences that must be better understood before effective health care interventions can be designed and implemented.
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PMID:A holistic life view of human immunodeficiency virus-infected African American women. 1081 46

Through focus group methodology, the study examines three contexts that delineate the co-occurrence of intimate partner violence and sexual risk behaviors among 68 women on methadone. First, it explores the ways in which the presence of physical abuse in an intimate relationship prevents women from asking their partners to use a condom. Second, it describes the ways in which the couple's drug involvement increases the risk of physical and sexual violence, and concomitant sexual HIV risks. Third, it discusses the context in which sexual assault and rape occur in these established intimate relationships and how these abusive events increase women's risks of becoming infected with HIV. The research is guided by feminist theory, which affords powerful insight into the contexts in which women are put at risk for HIV and partner violence. The study provides a discussion on the implications of the findings to HIV prevention for women who are risk for both HIV and partner violence.
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PMID:Fear and violence: raising the HIV stakes. 1083 40


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