Theoretical Foundations of Research Focused on HIV Prevention Among Substance-involved Women: A Review of Observational and Intervention Studies

Abstract

Although substance use continues to be a significant component of HIV risk among women worldwide, to date relatively little attention has been paid in research, services, or policy to substance-involved women (SIW). HIV acquisition for SIW stems from transmission risks directly related to substance use, as well as risks associated with sexual activity where power to negotiate risk and safety are influenced by dynamics of male partnerships, sex work, and criminalization (of both drug use and sex work), among other things. As such, HIV risk for such women resides as much in the environment—physical, social, cultural, economic, and political--in which drug use occurs as it does from transmission-related behaviors of individual women. To reduce HIV infections among SIW, it is important to specify the interaction of individual- and environmental-level factors, including, but not limited to those related to women's own substance use, that can and ought to be changed. This involves theorizing about the interplay of gender, substance use, and HIV risk and incorporating that theoretical understanding into intervention design and evaluation. A review of the published literature focused on HIV prevention among SIW revealed a general lack of theoretical and conceptual foundation specific to the gender-related and environmental drivers of HIV in this population. Greater theoretical linkages to intersectionality and syndemics approaches are recommended to better identify and target relevant mechanisms by which the interplay of gender dynamics and substance use potentiate the likelihood of HIV acquisition and transmission among SIW.