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Severely Mentally Ill Women’s HIV Risk: The Influence of Social Support, Substance Use, and Contextual Risk Factors

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Abstract

In structured interviews with 96 women with severe mental illness, nearly two-thirds had not used condoms during sexual intercourse in the past 3 months, more than two-thirds had sex with multiple partners, and almost one-third had been treated for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the past year. Women who reported fewer sexual risk context factors, such as having sex with someone the participant did not know or transactional sex, had fewer sexual partners. Larger social support networks were associated with less frequent sex after drug use. In turn, women who less often had sex after using drugs had unprotected intercourse less frequently.

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Acknowledgments

Preparation of this manuscript was supported, in part, by NIMH Center Grant P30-MH52776, NIMH NRSA postdoctoral training Grant T32-MH19985, and NIMH Grant R01-MH63643.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53202, USA

    Mary E. Randolph Ph.D., Steven D. Pinkerton Ph.D., Anton M. Somlai Ed.D., Jeffrey A. Kelly Ph.D., Timothy L. McAuliffe Ph.D. & Kristin Hackl M.S.W.

  2. Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Richard H. Gibson M.D.

Authors
  1. Mary E. Randolph Ph.D.
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  2. Steven D. Pinkerton Ph.D.
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  3. Anton M. Somlai Ed.D.
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  4. Jeffrey A. Kelly Ph.D.
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  5. Timothy L. McAuliffe Ph.D.
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  6. Richard H. Gibson M.D.
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  7. Kristin Hackl M.S.W.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary E. Randolph Ph.D..

Additional information

Mary E. Randolph, Steven D. Pinkerton, Anton M. Somlai, Jeffrey A. Kelly, Timothy L. McAuliffe, and Kristin Hackl are affiliated with Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA.

Richard H. Gibson is affiliated with Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI USA.

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Randolph, M.E., Pinkerton, S.D., Somlai, A.M. et al. Severely Mentally Ill Women’s HIV Risk: The Influence of Social Support, Substance Use, and Contextual Risk Factors. Community Ment Health J 43, 33–47 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-006-9069-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-006-9069-0

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