Measuring Sexual Minority Status Among Women Drug Users

描述（由研究者提供）：估计20- 30%的女性 吸毒者是女同性恋者、双性恋者或其他与妇女发生性关系的妇女。 与WSW吸毒者的同性行为是一种功能的理论相反， 性工作或监禁，最近对WSW注射者的人种学研究表明， 大多数WSW吸毒者可以被认为是“性少数群体”， 我们定义为女性，对她们来说，同性取向是一个重要方面， 他们的社交生活性少数地位似乎影响健康， 与健康有关的行为，以及健康和药物治疗服务经验 女性吸毒者的影响需要进一步的研究来 准确地确定性少数地位如何使健康复杂化 妇女使用非法药物的后果， 评估干预措施，以减少性少数群体之间的健康差距 和其他吸毒的女性然而，这种研究首先需要 制定有效的衡量性少数群体地位的措施， 对女性吸毒者来说是可靠的这将通过以下方式实现：1）增加我们的 通过中学教育了解性少数群体地位的组成部分 对最近完成的一项关于纽约女性吸毒者的民族志研究的分析 和波士顿（收集了260个与78个WSW主题的深入访谈）; 2） 利用这些分析来制定基于性别的措施， 少数民族地位; 3）通过试点初步验证这些措施 对120名女性吸毒者（包括估计24-36名性少数群体）的调查 在纽约市。拟议的研究直接涉及最近的建议 由医学研究所的女同性恋健康研究优先委员会 制定更好的、多层面的性取向衡量标准， 适用于低收入和少数民族妇女，特别注意 女同性恋者使用非法药物及其后遗症。为此，这 拟议的R 03研究将制定衡量性少数地位的措施， 今后在妇女吸毒者中进行流行病学和保健服务研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): An estimated 20-30 percent of women drug users are lesbian, bisexual or other women who have sex with women (WSWs). Contrary to theories that WSW drug users' same-sex behavior is a function of sex work or incarceration, recent ethnographic work on WSW injectors suggests that a majority of WSW drug users can be considered "sexual minorities," which we define as women for whom same-sex orientation is an important aspect of their social lives. Sexual minority status appears to affect health, health-related behaviors, and the health and drug treatment service experiences of women drug users in important ways. Additional research is needed to determine precisely how sexual minority status may complicate the health consequences of illicit drug use among women, and especially to design and evaluate interventions to reduce disparities in health between sexual minority and other drug-using women. Research of this sort, however, will first require the development of measures of sexual minority status that are valid and reliable for women drug users. This will be accomplished by: 1) increasing our understanding of the components of sexual minority status via secondary analysis of a recently-concluded ethnographic study of women lDUs in New York and Boston (which collected 260 in-depth interviews with 78 WSW subjects); 2) using these analyses to develop empirically-grounded measures of sexual minority status; and 3) preliminary validation of these measures via a pilot survey of 120 women drug users (including an estimated 24-36 sexual minorities) in New York City. The proposed study directly addresses recent recommendations by the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Lesbian Health Research Priorities that improved, multi-dimensional measures of sexual orientation be developed and applied to low-income and ethnic minority women, with specific attention to illicit drug use and its sequelae among lesbians. Towards this end, this proposed R03 study will develop measures of sexual minority status to be used in future epidemiological and health services research among women drug users.