AIDS and behavior
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Despite widely available and effective treatments, there are racial/ethnic disparities in HIV-related mortality rates. The reason for inadequate HIV/AIDS management among minority populations is not fully understood, however recent research indicates that patients rate the quality of their health care higher if they are racially/ethnically concordant with their providers. ⋯ In this sample, concordance was associated with lower mistrust in the health care system, but not with trust in provider. We conclude that in this patient population and within the health care system available to them, racial/ethnic concordance might be more important for helping patients to understand and navigate the health care system rather than in interpersonal relationships with a single provider.
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Twenty-three U. S. states currently have laws that make it a crime for persons who have HIV to engage in various sexual behaviors without, in most cases, disclosing their HIV-positive status to prospective sex partners. ⋯ This article demonstrates how HIV disclosure laws disregard or discount the effectiveness of universal precautions and safer sex, criminalize activities that are central to harm reduction efforts, and offer, as an implicit alternative to risk reduction and safer sex, a disclosure-based HIV transmission prevention strategy that undermines public health efforts. The article also describes how criminal HIV disclosure laws may work against the efforts of public health leaders to reduce stigmatizing attitudes toward persons living with HIV.
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This study, based on data from a random sample of 322 men on methadone, examines whether traditional male gender role beliefs, male substance use, and couple drug-involvement lead to male psychological dominance, which in turn leads to perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual HIV risk behavior. Structural equation modeling indicated that male psychological dominance is directly associated with perpetrating both physical IPV and sexual HIV risk; however, physical IPV did not lead to sexual HIV risk as predicted originally. Stronger endorsement of traditional male gender role beliefs was associated with male psychological dominance. ⋯ Male substance use led to couple drug-involvement, but not to physical or sexual HIV risk as hypothesized. Study findings highlight the significance of couple drug-involvement and male psychological dominance as pathways leading to physical IPV and sexual HIV risk behavior. Implications for HIV prevention efforts targeting drug-involved men and their sexual partners are discussed.