A Retrospective & Prospective Analysis of Trading Sex for Drugs or Money in Women Substance Abuse Treatment Patients
BACKGROUND:
Trading
sex for drugs or money is common in substance abuse treatment patients, and
this study evaluated prevalence and correlates of this behavior in women with
cocaine use disorders initiating outpatient care. In addition, we examined the
relation of sex trading status to treatment response in relation to usual care
versus contingency management (CM), as well as predictors of continued
involvement in sex trading over a 9-month period.
METHODS:
Women
(N=493) recruited from outpatient substance abuse treatment clinics were
categorized according to histories of sex trading (n=215, 43.6%) or not (n=278).
RESULTS:
Women
with a history of trading sex were more likely to be African American, older
and less educated, and they had more severe employment problems and were more
likely to be HIV positive than those without this history. Controlling for
baseline differences, both groups responded equally to substance abuse
treatment in terms of retention and abstinence outcomes. Fifty-four women
(11.3%) reported trading sex within the next nine months. Predictors of
continued involvement in trading sex included a prior history of such behaviors
and achieving less abstinence during treatment. Each additional week of
abstinence during treatment was associated with a 16% reduction in the
likelihood of trading sex over the follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS:
Because
over 40% of women receiving community-based treatment for cocaine use disorders
have traded sex for drugs or money and more than 10% persist in the behavior,
more intensive and directed approaches toward addressing this HIV risk behavior
are recommended.
- 1UConn Health, 263 Farmington Avenue (MC 3944), Farmington, CT 06030, United States. Electronic address: rashc@uchc.edu.
- 2UConn Health, 263 Farmington Avenue (MC 3944), Farmington, CT 06030, United States.
- 3Community Health Services, 500 Albany Avenue, Hartford, CT 06120, United States.
- Drug Alcohol Depend. 2016 Mar 16. pii: S0376-8716(16)00146-0. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.03.006.
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