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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
William W. Latimer, PhD, MPH, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 642 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-3960, wlatimer@jhsph.edu, S.A. Strathdee, PhD, School Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, Karen I. Bolla, PhD, Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Bayview Medical Center, 4940 Eastern Ave., Baltimore, MD 21224, and Ola Selnes, PhD, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Neurology, Baltimore, MD 21205.
Initial findings of a new NIDA-funded study to examine neurobehavioral risk factors of HIV among injection drug users (IDUs) will be summarized. The study has two related aims: (1) to estimate via a case-control study the magnitude of a suspected causal association between neuropsychological executive dysfunction and being HIV-infected among young IDU initiates; and (2) to estimate via a longitudinal study the magnitude of a suspected causal relationship between executive dysfunction and HIV-risk behaviors among IDUs. Participants are young IDUs between 15 and 30 years of age who initiated injection drug use within the past 5 years and used injection drugs at least once within the past 6 months. To date, more than 65 assessments comprised of an HIV risk behavior interview and neuropsychological tests of executive function have been administered. The neuropsychological battery includes the following tasks: Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, Trails A and B, Tower of London, Digit Span, Stroop, TOVA, Finger Tapping Test, and Shipley. Viral load status and CD4+ count are also assessed. This presentation will focus on preliminary analyses to examine associations between executive dysfunction and HIV risk behaviors among young IDUs. The study hypothesis is that IDUs with elevated executive dysfunctions will exhibit elevated HIV risk behaviors involving needle sharing and unprotected sex.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to
Keywords: , HIV Risk Behavior
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.