Sex partners of Native American drug users

This study describes patterns of sexual behavior and condom use in a sample of Native American drug-using men and women (N = 114). Data are self-reports of sexual behavior in the last 30 days, including descriptions of the most recent sex partners up to five. These data provided information on 157 sex partner pairs, of which at least one partner was a drug user, Native American women (55%) were more likely than Native American men (23%) to report never using condoms for vaginal and anal sex in the last 30 days. Compared with other ethnic pair combinations, sex partner pairs composed of Native American women and white men (n = 18) were the least likely to use condoms (6% of pairs) and the most likely to report an injection drug user (IDU) sex partner (33% of pairs). These results suggest a potential vector of HIV and other sexually transmitted disease (STD) transmission between white male IDUs and Native American women and highlight the need for further qualitative and quantitative research to examine the factors underlying this pattern of sexual risk behavior.