African American Female Drug Users: HIV, Health Disparities, & Criminality

这项研究的总体目标是了解吸毒和犯罪行为与健康差距的关系， 特别是艾滋病毒，以及非洲裔美国人吸毒和非吸毒妇女的服务利用情况 刑事司法地位。虽然美国不同种族之间的吸毒情况相似，但非洲裔美国人 不成比例地更有可能经历严重的健康后果和刑事卷入 滥用药物所致。非裔美国女性罪犯可能得不到足够的医疗保健 因为他们经历了种族、阶级、性别和罪犯身份的负担。有限制的 科学数据，帮助了解健康差距之间的联系，如艾滋病毒，未经治疗的药物滥用， 服务利用方面的障碍，以及非裔美国女性作为罪犯的地位。这项研究是 重要的是，它有可能确定健康差距和服务利用率之间的差异 非裔美国人吸毒和非吸毒妇女在选定的刑事司法地位级别(密集 惩教监督--监狱(n=200)、中度惩教监督--监狱(n=200)、社区 监督--缓刑(n=200)，不参与刑事司法(n=200)。所有800名非洲裔美国女性 将对三个6个月的间隔进行逻辑跟踪，以检查健康状况和卫生服务的使用情况 跨越时间。具体目标是：(1)描述非洲健康问题的流行情况 美国女性的刑事司法地位和吸毒状况；(2)确定文化， 易感因素、既往健康状况和潜在的致病因素是健康问题的预测因素 非裔美国人吸毒和非吸毒妇女的刑事司法地位超过18个月； 描述未经治疗的健康问题的流行情况、卫生服务的利用模式以及 非裔美国女性在刑事司法地位和毒品方面利用服务的文化障碍 使用状况；和(4)检查预测非洲人使用卫生服务的可能性的因素 美国吸毒者和非吸毒者刑事司法地位超过18个月。这个 这项研究的意义包括有可能为卫生规划提供刑事司法系统层面的数据。 以及预防、干预和治疗非裔美国女性吸毒者的卫生政策。这项研究对公共卫生领域具有重要意义，因为它有可能理解健康的严重性 非裔美国女性在刑事司法地位和吸毒状况方面的差异及其预测 随着时间的推移，健康状况和卫生服务的使用情况。这种对非裔美国女性的了解可以是 用作未来刑事司法系统一级干预措施的基础，以增加预防性措施的使用 保健，并随后减少对昂贵医疗服务的需要，以及降低艾滋病毒风险 包括吸毒、无保护措施的性行为和累犯等行为。

The overall goal of this study is to understand how drug use and criminality are related to health disparities, particularly HIV, and service utilization among African American drug using and non-drug using women across criminal justice status. While drug use is similar across racial groups in the US, African Americans are disproportionately more likely to experience severe health consequences and criminal involvemement as a result of drug misuse. Adequate health care may not be received by African American female offenders because they experience the burden of their race, class, gender, and criminal offender status. There is limited scientific data to help understand the linkages between health disparities such as HIV, untreated drug abuse, barriers to service utilization, and status as a criminial offender among African American females. This study is significant because of its potential to identify differences in health disparities and service utilization among African American drug using and non-drug using women in selected levels of criminal justice status (intensive correctional supervision-prison (n=200), moderate correctional supervision-jail (n=200), community supervision-probation (n=200), and no criminal justice involvement (n=200)). All 800 African American females will be followed logitudinally for three 6-month intervals to examine health status and the use of health services across time. The specific aims are: (1) To describe the prevalence of health problems among African American women across criminal justice status and drug use status; (2) To determine the cultural, predisposing, historical health, and potential enabling factors that are predictors of health problems among African American drug using and non-drug using women across criminal justice status over 18 months; (3) To describe the prevalence of untreated health problems, the patterns of health services utilization, and the cultural barriers to service utilization among African American women across criminal justice status and drug use status; and (4) To examine the factors that predict the likelihood of using health services among African American drug using and non-drug using women across criminal justice status over 18 months. The significance of this study includes the potential to provide criminal justice systems-level data for health planning and health policy for prevention, intervention, and treatment of African American female drug users. This study is significant to the public health field because of its potential to understand the severity of health disparities among African American women across criminal justice status and drug use status and to predict health status and the use of health services over time. This knowledge of African American females can be used as a foundation for future criminal justice systems-level interventions to increase the use of preventative health care and subsequently reduce the need for expensive medical services, as well as to decrease HIV risk behaviors including drug use, unprotected sex, and recidivism.