Sung Yeon Kang

..The findings also indicate an on-going need for mental and other health services for drug users who have been victims of abuse...

..This study examined gender-specific effects of social bonds, network characteristics, and other factors on drug treatment enrollment among Puerto Rican drug users...

..The study's limitations have been noted...

..The findings demonstrate the importance of family and social support for HIV-positive drug users and also suggest a need for special attention to those who have childhood sexual abuse experience...

..Programs for these populations should also take into account the different risk behaviors among different racial/ethnic groups, in order to tailor culturally sensitive programs for HIV care and intervention...

..The findings indicate a need for effective drug treatment programs inside jail/prisons to reduce HIV-related risk behaviors among drug injectors during incarceration and after release...

..More attention to sex risk behaviors are needed in HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs...

..HIV/AIDS prevention programs should include a focus on enhancing self-efficacy for reducing risk behaviors...

..We compared injection-related HIV risk behaviors of Puerto Rican current injection drug users (IDUs) living in New York City and in Puerto Rico who also had injected in the other location with those who had not...

..The need to address sexual risk behaviors in both locations was also indicated. Resources focusing on reducing HIV transmission in the Caribbean should include efforts to target the drug use-HIV epidemic in PR...

..The need to address risks associated with joint drug purchasing in both locations and to enhance efforts to reduce risks among IDUs in Puerto Rico is indicated...

..05). Implications included the need to enhance risk reduction efforts for IDUs in PR and address sexual risk among mobile drug users...

..Prevention programs to reduce indirect sharing behaviors should take into consideration different types of risk norms in order to reduce indirect sharing risk behaviors...

..However, only having primary partners was significant in longer-term behaviors. Results indicated the need for enhancing self-efficacy and for developing risk reduction strategies related to community differences...

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..80; PR: AOR = 3.10). Increasing availability of methadone maintenance treatment, especially in PR, was indicated...

..10) and between gender and injection drug use (p<.10). CONCLUSIONS: The findings support a need for drug treatment programs that include specialized therapies for those who suffered childhood abuse and neglect experiences...

..Results of the ethnographic component of this study are summarized. The role of ethnographic methods in implementing and evaluating this kind of intervention is also discussed...

..The findings indicate that providing multiple sources of safe syringes for IDUs is necessary...

..Recommendations for future efforts in training drug treatment patients as outreach workers are provided...

..For the purpose of this paper, the term "migrant" was used to designate Puerto Rican drug users who had used drugs in Puerto Rico and were recruited in New York or New Jersey)...

..Participating in civic activities has been found to be related to positive health outcomes...

..The findings indicate that gender-specific issues should be addressed by treatment programs for HIV-positive drug users, with particular efforts needed to enhance use of medications for depressed women...

..Although further research is needed, drug-scene role-holders should be targeted for interventions to affect their own risk and their communications with others...

..Both studies indicate the need to differentiate subgroup factors affecting HIV risk and prevention behaviors to develop appropriate and effective community-based interventions. The study's limitations are noted...

..Retention in a Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program (MMTP) is predictive of abstaining from heroin and has other benefits. Many individuals leave treatment before they experience these positive outcomes...

..Drug treatment patients who are migrants can be trained as peer outreach workers and short-term benefits were found. Longer term maintenance of benefits should be assessed...

..Service expansion has focused on various types of services including medical services (eg, primary care) and harm-reduction services (eg, provision of sterile syringes)...

..A vocational counseling model which emphasizes assertive outreach and attends to nonvocational clinical issues as well is more likely to engage patients...

..Furthermore, these results point to an urgent need to reduce excess mortality among IDUs in Puerto Rico...

..The only source of free syringes, the SEP, permitted more syringes to be exchanged but the increase was not statistically significant. Implications for syringe exchange and distribution programs are discussed...

..The proposed study will contribute to an understanding of gender-differentiated healthcare behaviors, and further lead to recommendations to narrow the gender gap. ..