Partner violence and sexual HIV risk behaviors among women in methadone treatment

To examine associations between recent partner violence and sexual HIV risk behaviors and their implications for HIV prevention among women in methadone treatment, we conducted structured interviews covering demographics, drug use, trauma history, partner violence, and sexual risk behavior with 147 sexually active women who were at risk of HIV infection. Almost one third (30.5%) of the women reported that they had been physically or sexually abused by a spouse or boyfriend during the previous year. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that after adjusting for potential confounders, recently abused women were less likely to report using condoms (OR = 0.41, CI = 0.17, 0.99) and more likely than non-recently abused women to report having contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD) (OR = 3.6, CI = 1.6, 8.5), exchanged sex for money (OR = 2.4, CI = 1.1, 5.4), and having had sex with an HIV-infected partner (OR = 2.5, CI = 1.0, 6.1). The study findings underscore the importance of developing HIV-risk reduction strategies that target the specific needs of abused women in drug treatment.