A Study of Sexual Relationship Power among Young Women Who Inject Drugs and Their Sexual Partners

ABSTRACT

Background: To date, research applying the Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS) has been limited to sexual risk behaviors. Objective: We measured levels of sexual relationship power and examined associations between sexual relationship power and injecting and sexual behaviors that place women at increased risk for blood borne infections. Methods: Using data from a cross-sectional study of young women who inject drugs (WWID) in San Francisco, USA, logistic regression analysis identified independent associations between SRPS and subscale scores (relationship control [RC] and decision making dominance [DMD]) and injecting and sexual behaviors. Results: Of the 68 young WWID, 24 (34%) reported receptive syringe sharing, 38 (56%) reused/shared a cooker to prepare drugs, and 25 (37%) injected someone else's drug residue during the three-months prior to enrollment. Most (60, 88%) reported condomless sex with main sex-partner, 8 (12%) reported transactional sex, and 36 (53%) had two or more recent sex partners. The median SRPS score was 2.98 (IQR: 2.65, 3.18), 3.23 (IQR: 3.23, 3.57) for RC and 2.40 (IQR: 2.20, 2.60) for DMD. No significant associations were detected between SRPS or DMD and injecting or sexual risk behaviors. After adjusting for gender and years injecting, for every one-point increase in RC, women had a 6.70 lower odds of recent condomless sex (95%CI: 0.92, 50.00, p = 0.06), and a 3.90 lower odds of recent transactional sex (95%CI: 1.22, 12.50, p = 0.02). Conclusion: Our study findings suggest that some components of sexual relationship power may play a role in sexual risk, but not in injecting risk.

KEYWORDS:

• SRPS
• young women
• people who inject drugs
• injecting partnerships
• epidemiology
• hepatitis C virus
• sexual partnerships

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of California, San Francisco (KL2TR000143)

National Institute on Drug Abuse (K01DA037802,K24AA02258,R01DA016017)

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01DA016017, K24AA02258, and K01DA037802). Dr. Morris received additional support through a NIH Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute program (KL2TR000143).