Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jul;15(5):1003-10.
doi: 10.1007/s10461-010-9816-7.

Drug network characteristics and HIV risk among injection drug users in Russia: the roles of trust, size, and stability

Javier A Cepeda  1 , Veronika A Odinokova, Robert Heimer, Lauretta E Grau, Alexandra Lyubimova, Liliya Safiullina, Olga S Levina, Linda M Niccolai
Affiliations

Drug network characteristics and HIV risk among injection drug users in Russia: the roles of trust, size, and stability

Javier A Cepeda et al. AIDS Behav. 2011 Jul.

Abstract

We investigated the influence of drug network characteristics including trust, size, and stability on HIV risk behaviors and HIV testing among injection drug users (IDUs) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Overall, male and female IDUs who reported having high levels of trust in their drug networks were significantly more likely to share syringes than those with lower levels of trust (OR [95% CI]) 2.87 [1.06, 7.81] and 4.89 [1.05, 21.94], respectively). Male and female IDUs in larger drug networks were more likely to share syringes than those in smaller networks (4.21 [1.54, 11.51] and 4.80 [1.20, 19.94], respectively). Characteristics that were significantly associated with not having been HIV tested included drug network instability among men and larger network size among women. High trust, large size, and instability were positively and significantly associated with syringe sharing and not having been HIV tested. Effectiveness of interventions in Russia to reduce the risk of HIV infection may be enhanced if network characteristics are addressed.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of trust measures
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Russian Federation: summary country profile for HIV/AIDS treatment scale-up. 2005.
    1. Cohen J. Late for the epidemic: HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe. Science. 2010;329(5988):160, 162–164. - PubMed
    1. Goliusov AT, Dementyeva LA, Ladnaya NN, et al. Country progress report of the Russian Federation on the implementation of the declaration of commitment on HIV/AIDS. [Accessed 13 May 2010];Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation: Federal service for surveillance of consumer rights protection and human well-being of the Russian Federation. 2009 Available at http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2008/russia_2008_country_progress_repo....
    1. Heimer R, White E. Estimation of the number of injection drug users in St Petersburg, Russia. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2010;109(1–3):79–83. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Niccolai LM, Toussova OV, Verevochkin SV, Barbour R, Heimer R, Kozlov AP. High HIV prevalence, suboptimal HIV testing, and low knowledge of HIV-positive serostatus among injection drug users in St Petersburg, Russia. AIDS Behav. 2010;14(4):932–41. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms