Previous research has noted a high rate of drug use by women arrestees. Not only are women arrestees more likely to be found drug positive by urinalysis than are men arrestees, but in recent years, in part because of drug use, women have constituted the fastest growing population segment involved with the criminal justice system. One small but important subgroup of women arrestees are those who are pregnant and, thus, who particularly need intervention. This article utilizes Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) data from Los Angeles jails to examine whether or not pregnant drug-abusing women arrestees differ from nonpregnant drug-abusing women arrestees in terms of perceived need for treatment. Bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression show that pregnant drug-using women are not more likely than nonpregnant women to perceive a need for treatment. Although pregnancy status is not related to perceived need, a number of other factors are related, including being single, Euro-American ethnicity, using cocaine or opioids for more than three days in the past 30 days, being self-identified as currently drug dependent, having a substance abuse treatment history, and having lower legal incomes. Interventions with drug-using women arrestees should be made early in their drug use and criminal careers and should target both pregnant and nonpregnant women.

The seroprevalence of hepatitis B markers among predominantly high-risk staff members and personnel of 31 community hospitals located throughout the United States was 8.4 per cent (25 per cent in 25 hospitals and -10 per cent in 13 hospitals). Only two hospitals had seroprevalence rates s3 per cent. The institutional seroprevalence ranged from 0 per cent to 16.7 per cent, with a median of 8.2 per cent. Although there are limitations to this survey, the results suggest that the well established increased risk of contracting HBV infection among certain groups of health-care workers in urban teaching medical centers may also hold true for personnel in similar occupational and professional categories in community hospitals. (Am J Public Health 1987; 77:998-999.)