Background
Women bear a significant burden of the HIV epidemic in the United
States. Women classified as ‘HIV high-risk’ often bring
co-existing histories of intimate partner violence (IPV), drug use, and
transactional sex. To help inform future comprehensive HIV prevention
strategies, we aimed to explore common motivating reasons and barriers to
leaving and/or terminating engagement in each of these risk-promoting
situations.
Methods
Between August and November 2014, in-depth interviews were conducted
with 14 HIV high-risk women in Atlanta, Georgia who had experienced IPV in
the previous 12 months, and used drugs and/or engaged in transactional sex
in the previous five years. Participants were asked about histories of IPV,
drug use, and/or engagement in transactional sex, and the motivating reasons
and barriers to terminating each.
Results
Women reported a range of motivating reasons for leaving IPV, drug
use, and transactional sex. Overlapping themes included impact on children,
personal physical health/safety, and life dissatisfaction. Financial need
was identified as a common barrier to leaving.
Conclusions
Future HIV prevention research should further explore the perceived
impact of IPV, drug use, and transactional sex on physical health/safety,
life dissatisfaction, one’s children, and financial need as
motivators and barriers to reducing upstream HIV risk.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.