Transcript PowerPoint Slides for Chapter 3

Chapter 3:
Correlates of Risk for HIV Infection

Correlates

Unlike many viruses, which
pass easily through air, water,
food, and casual contact, HIV
usually requires risky behaviors
like sex and drug use for its
transmission
 People do not perform these
risky behaviors in a vacuum.
Instead, biological,
psychological, demographic,
and sociocultural factors affect
both the likelihood and the
consequences of these
behaviors
Module 1, Chapter 3
Overview of Risk Factors for
HIV Infection
Module 1, Chapter 3
Behaviors That Increase the
Risk of HIV

HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids. Behaviors that increase an uninfected
person’s contact with infected body fluids will increase that person’s chances
of contracting HIV. These behaviors include:

Unsafe sexual behaviors:
 The most common way of getting and giving HIV
 During sex HIV can be transmitted through cuts
and tears on the penis, vagina, or anus
 Cuts and scrapes are more likely during anal sex, forced sex,
dry sex, or when women are very young
 Unsafe drug use
 Sharing injecting drug use (IDU) paraphernalia such as needles and syringes
 Mixing Sex and Drugs/Alcohol
 When people use drugs and alcohol, their decision-making abilities, awareness
of their surroundings, and memories are altered, making them less likely to
choose or remember to practice safer sex
 Not taking antiretroviral drugs properly
 When people do no take their antiretroviral drugs properly they have more HIV
in their systems, and are therefore more likely to infect other people through
sexual transmission or through sharing needles
Module 1, Chapter 3
Overview of Risk Factors for
HIV Infection

As shown in this figure, all these factors combine and interact to both
increase and decrease people’s chances of getting (contracting) or giving
(transmitting) HIV
Module 1, Chapter 3
Biological and Existing Health Risk
Factors
There are a number of biological risk factors (both one’s
own, and one’s partners) that make it easier for HIV to
enter the body. These include:
• the presence of other sexually transmitted
diseases/infections
• structure of the vagina and of the anus
• viral load (often affected by a person’s antiretroviral medication history)
• immune system health (self or partner)
• tissue/membrane vulnerability (including tears, lesions, amount of coital
lubrication, and mucous membrane health of self or partner)
• genetic character of the virus itself (different viral strains)
Module 1, Chapter 3
Psychological Factors
Individual psychological factors shape HIV risk behaviors. These include:
• personality (including impulsivity and sensation seeking, sexual and physical
abuse history, sexual self-control, perceived self-efficacy to use condoms
correctly and consistently, self-esteem, risk-taking (such as alcohol and other
non-injection drug use, etc.)
• beliefs about HIV/AIDS
• risk perception
• coping styles
• communication styles with sexual partners
• mental health disorders
• depression and psychological distress
Module 1, Chapter 3
Demographic and Population-based
Factors
HIV risk behaviors are shaped in the context of both demographic factors
as well as population-based factors. These include:
• race/ethnicity
• age
• sexual orientation
• gender or transgender
• migration
• the number of HIV+ people in the population
• the frequency of risky behaviors, such
as unsafe sex and intravenous drug use, in the population)
Module 1, Chapter 3
Social and Cultural Factors
HIV risk behaviors are shaped by a variety of social and cultural factors that
occur at the level of face-to-face and small group interactions, as well as at
the level of institutions, governments and organizations. These include:
• inequality
• discrimination
• stigma
• gender roles and constraints
• cultural rituals
• values
• norms
• political unrest
• economics
• individual and social poverty
• community transitions
• the availability and accessibility of medical and social services
Module 1, Chapter 3