Young Black Adults' Increased HIV/STD Risk Not Tied to Behavior

Black adults are at increased risk for infection with HIV and other STDs, even when their relative level of risky behavior is low, according to a study recently published by the American Journal of Public Health.

In the abstract for "Sexual and Drug Behavior Patterns and HIV/STD Racial Disparities: The Need for New Directions," the study authors state that "factors other than individual risk behaviors and covariates appear to account for racial disparities," in the levels of HIV/STD infection risk.

Recognizing that environment, institution, context and social differences play a role in HIV risk, study researchers grouped subjects into 15 different behavior pattern groups, from relatively low- to high-risk levels. Low-risk behaviors included having few sexual partners and limited alcohol, tobacco or drug use; high-risk behaviors included intravenous drug use, exchanging sex for money, men having sex with men, and abusing marijuana and other drugs.

HIV/STD prevalence was observed to be higher among blacks in all 15 risk groups. In the white adult test group, high HIV/STD infection prevalence was only present in individuals with the four most risky behavior patterns.

"This study is particularly interesting because it suggests that given similar patterns of risk behaviors across racial groups, young African American adults are more likely to become infected," said Nora Volkow, M.D., director of NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, in a Dec. 5 news release. "As a result, we need to look beyond strategies that target individual risk behaviors and focus on outreach and education for this population as a group."

Providing information, testing and treatment at nontraditional places, such as churches, salons, barber shops, colleges, prisons and jails, was suggested by the study's authors as one way to reach this demographic, in addition to increased media campaigns.

"These surprising new findings suggest that a more comprehensive research approach is needed to understand the factors that make young African American adults vulnerable to STD and HIV infection beyond the commonly known individual risk factors," said Volkow.

The findings are part of a study supported by NIDA. Researchers looked at nationwide population-based data from 2001-02 on more than 6,200 white adults and 2,400 black adults between 18 and 26 years old who had taken part in the ongoing National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The participants originally had completed surveys in 1994-95 when they were in the seventh to 12th grades. For this study, they were self-interviewed via computer about their sexual and substance abuse histories, and then were tested for HIV and other STDs.