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The Context of HIV Risk Among Drug Users and Their Sexual Partners

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As Des Jarlais noted, designs <strong>and</strong> analyses must account for the<br />

instability within populations. IDUs start <strong>and</strong> cease injection every day<br />

within a given city, so the overall rate <strong>of</strong> injection can be constant within<br />

a city while numerous significant changes in injection behavior are<br />

occurring at other levels <strong>of</strong> analysis. <strong>The</strong> increase in use <strong>of</strong> heroin by<br />

sniffing or insufflation, for example, represents a significant shift in risk<br />

behavior that would not be captured by statistics on heroin use unless<br />

heroin use were disaggregated by route <strong>of</strong> administration. <strong>Drug</strong> abuse<br />

itself is a chronic disorder with a varying course over time, <strong>and</strong> variations<br />

in the disease course may be associated with risk behaviors <strong>and</strong> related<br />

cognitions, motivations, <strong>and</strong> appraisals. Factors that account for changes<br />

within a population must be studied to truly underst<strong>and</strong> behavior.<br />

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES ARE NOT SUFFICIENT<br />

EXPLANATIONS OF THE CONTEXT OF RISK BEHAVIOR<br />

Culture is a concept that must be treated with respect because it refers to<br />

exceedingly complex issues that have significant impacts on behavior.<br />

Cultural variables may include observable phenomena such as family<br />

composition <strong>and</strong> types <strong>of</strong> buildings as well as elements not directly<br />

observable such as national identification, religious beliefs, <strong>and</strong> affective<br />

style. As an example <strong>of</strong> the complexity <strong>of</strong> culture, when one considers<br />

the diverse countries <strong>of</strong> origin, the range <strong>of</strong> socioeconomic resources, the<br />

linguistic differences, <strong>and</strong> the geographic dispersion represented in<br />

groups that all legitimately may be called Hispanic, the term “Hispanic<br />

culture” has no clear <strong>and</strong> unitary meaning. Even if its meaning were<br />

clear, how would one tease apart the contributions <strong>of</strong> Hispanic culture<br />

<strong>and</strong> U.S. culture?<br />

In drug-using populations there are norms that may constitute a drug<br />

culture that overlies <strong>and</strong> interacts with other cultural variables. This drug<br />

culture is not homogeneous across groups. <strong>Drug</strong> norms themselves shift,<br />

as the growing acceptance by drug sellers <strong>of</strong> marketing to young<br />

adolescents demonstrates. It is clear that norms <strong>and</strong> values <strong>of</strong> different<br />

subpopulations affect each other, <strong>and</strong> conceptualization <strong>of</strong> research issues<br />

must take this into account. One example cited in the review <strong>of</strong> one norm<br />

influencing another was how adolescents’ ideas about sexual identity are<br />

influenced by larger societal attitudes towards sexual functioning.<br />

Research designs that compare one cultural group with another <strong>of</strong>ten lead<br />

to conceptual dichotomization <strong>of</strong> continuous traits, so that it becomes<br />

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