한국침례신학대학교 도서관

Mental health and HIV risk behaviors among homeless youth- [e-book]

주기사항: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 64-04, Section: A, page: 1412.

초록/해제: 요약 : Depressive symptoms and substance use have been shown to be highly prevalent among homeless youth as have risks for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) infection. HIV/HCV comorbidity with mental health and substance use issues may jeopardize health outcomes for homeless youth. Yet, the relationships among these variables are not well known. This study was conducted to discern if depressive symptoms and substance use were significantly predictive of variance with HIV and HCV risk behaviors when controlling for demographic/contextual variables.

초록/해제: 요약 : A cross-sectional design with convenience/snowball sampling was used to interview 141 homeless youth (ages 15-21; mean age 19.3 ± 1.46 years), within two sampling frames: (1)service sites; and (2)street-based sites. One-hour, open-ended and discrete-item quantitative interview schedule was used to measure depressive symptoms, substance use, and HIV and HCV perceived and actual risk behaviors. Demographic and contextual variables measured included age, race/ethnicity, gender-identification, sexual orientation, length of time homeless, numbers of services used, and engagement in injection drug use (IDU), prostitution and survival sex.

초록/해제: 요약 : Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that a gender-identification of other (self-categorization as “transgendered” or “both male and female”) and IDU accounted for a significant amount of variance within perceived HIV (16.4%) and HCV (18.9%) risk. Sixty-eight percent of the high risk IDU criterion was accounted for by a longer length of time homeless, upper and heroin use yet marijuana and hallucinogen use had an inverse; predictive relationship with IDU. Poor condom use (53.7% of the variance) was predicted by identifying as either other or female, being recruited from services, IDU, and a select subset of drugs. High inter-relationships among the demographic/contextual, depressive symptom and substance use variables made it impossible to hold the former constant in the regression analyses.

초록/해제: 요약 : These findings indicate that youth who gender-identify as other and are engaged in injection drug use, prostitution and/or survival sex may be at heightened risk for HIV/HCV infection. Implementation of practice methods that incorporate youth development and harm reduction strategies are highly recommended to decrease the likelihood of HIV/HCV infection and increase the likelihood of safe exit from street-life.