AIDS and Behavior

AIDS and Behavior

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1994-02-01

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 0309050936

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HIV is spreading rapidly, and effective treatments continue to elude science. Preventive interventions are now our best defense against the epidemicâ€"but they require a clear understanding of the behavioral and mental health aspects of HIV infection and AIDS. AIDS and Behavior provides an update of what investigators in the biobehavioral, psychological, and social sciences have discovered recently about those aspects of the disease and offers specific recommendations for research directions and priorities. This volume candidly discusses the sexual and drug-use behaviors that promote transmission of HIV and reports on the latest efforts to monitor the epidemic in its social contexts. The committee reviews new findings on how and why risky behaviors occur and efforts to develop strategies for changing such behaviors. The volume presents findings on the disease's progression and on the psychosocial impacts of HIV and AIDS, with a view toward intervention and improved caregiving. AIDS and Behavior also evaluates the status of behavioral and prevention aspects of AIDS research at the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The volume presents background on the three institutes; their recent reorganization; their research budgets, programs, and priorities; and other important details. The committee offers specific recommendations for the institutes concerning the balance between biomedical and behavioral investigations, adequacy of administrative structures, and other research management issues. Anyone interested in the continuing quest for new knowledge on preventing HIV and AIDS will want to own this book: policymakers, researchers, research administrators, public health professionals, psychologists, AIDS advocates and service providers, faculty, and students.


The Hidden Epidemic

The Hidden Epidemic

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1997-03-28

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 030917547X

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The United States has the dubious distinction of leading the industrialized world in overall rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with 12 million new cases annually. About 3 million teenagers contract an STD each year, and many will have long-term health problems as a result. Women and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to these diseases and their health consequences. In addition, STDs increase the risk of HIV transmission. The Hidden Epidemic examines the scope of sexually transmitted infections in the United States and provides a critical assessment of the nation's response to this public health crisis. The book identifies the components of an effective national STD prevention and control strategy and provides direction for an appropriate response to the epidemic. Recommendations for improving public awareness and education, reaching women and adolescents, integrating public health programs, training health care professionals, modifying messages from the mass media, and supporting future research are included. The book documents the epidemiological dimensions and the economic and social costs of STDs, describing them as "a secret epidemic" with tremendous consequences. The committee frankly discusses the confusing and often hypocritical nature of how Americans deal with issues regarding sexualityâ€"the conflicting messages conveyed in the mass media, the reluctance to promote condom use, the controversy over sex education for teenagers, and the issue of personal blame. The Hidden Epidemic identifies key elements of effective, culturally appropriate programs to promote healthy behavior by adolescents and adults. It examines the problem of fragmentation in STD services and provides examples of communities that have formed partnerships between stakeholders to develop integrated approaches. The committee's recommendations provide a practical foundation on which to build an integrated national program to help young people and adults develop habits of healthy sexuality. The Hidden Epidemic was written for both health care professionals and people without a medical background and will be indispensable to anyone concerned about preventing and controlling STDs.


Choosing Unsafe Sex

Choosing Unsafe Sex

Author: Elisa Janine Sobo

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780812215533

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Choosing Unsafe Sex focuses on the ways in which condom refusal and beliefs regarding HIV testing reflect women's hopes for their relationships and their desires to preserve status and self-esteem. It also discusses the related issue of seropositivity concealment or non-disclosure. Many of the inner-city women who participated in Dr. Sobo's research were seriously involved with one man, and they had heavy emotional and social investments in believing or maintaining that their partners were faithful to them. Uninvolved women had similarly heavy investments in their abilities to identify or choose potential partners who were HIV-negative. In either case, women sought to present and to view themselves as wise and their men as monogamous. Women did not see themselves as being at risk for HIV infection, and so they saw no need for condoms. But they did recommend that other women use them; they saw other women as quite likely to be involved with sexually unfaithful men. Choosing Unsafe Sex includes recommendations for educational strategies that are sensitive to cultural expectations for relationships. Dr. Sobo's findings have significance not only for inner-city HIV/AIDS educators but for all who seek a deeper understanding of mainstream assumptions about heterosexual relationships.


On the Down Low

On the Down Low

Author: J.L. King

Publisher: Harmony

Published: 2005-04-05

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 076791399X

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A bold exposé of the controversial secret that has potentially dire consequences in many African American communities. Delivering the first frank and thorough investigation of life “on the down low” (the DL), J. L. King exposes a closeted culture of sex between black men who lead “straight” lives. King explores his own past as a DL man, and the path that led him to let go of the lies and bring forth a message that can promote emotional healing and open discussions about relationships, sex, sexuality, and health in the black community. Providing a long-overdue wake-up call, J. L. King bravely puts the spotlight on a topic that has until now remained dangerously taboo. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, statistics, and the author’s firsthand knowledge of DL behavior, On the Down Low reveals the warning signs African American women need to know. King also discusses the potential health consequences of having unprotected sex, as African American women represent an alarming 64 percent of new HIV infections. Volatile yet vital, On the Down Low is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year. “A survey by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta found that nearly a quarter of black HIV-positive men who had sex with men consider themselves heterosexual.” —Essence


Psychological Abuse in Violent Domestic Relations

Psychological Abuse in Violent Domestic Relations

Author: K. Daniel O'Leary, PhD

Publisher: Springer Publishing Company

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0826111467

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This volume addresses the importance of measuring psychological abuse and shows that psychological aggression can be reliably measured. Part I identifies measurement issues and contains several scales and inventories for measuring psychological maltreatment. Part II discusses the interpersonal dynamics with specific populations, including battered women, low-income women, and African American women. This remains an important resource in the field of domestic violence.


Sexually Transmitted Infections

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher:

Published: 2021-12-24

Total Pages: 750

ISBN-13: 9780309683951

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One in five people in the United States had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) on any given day in 2018, totaling nearly 68 million estimated infections. STIs are often asymptomatic (especially in women) and are therefore often undiagnosed and unreported. Untreated STIs can have severe health consequences, including chronic pelvic pain, infertility, miscarriage or newborn death, and increased risk of HIV infection, genital and oral cancers, neurological and rheumatological effects. In light of this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the National Association of County and City Health Officials, commissioned the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to examine the prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections in the United States and provide recommendations for action. In 1997, the Institute of Medicine released a report, The Hidden Epidemic: Confronting Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Although significant scientific advances have been made since that time, many of the problems and barriers described in that report persist today; STIs remain an underfunded and comparatively neglected field of public health practice and research. The committee reviewed the current state of STIs in the United States, and the resulting report, Sexually Transmitted Infections: Advancing a Sexual Health Paradigm, provides advice on future public health programs, policy, and research.


Handbook of HIV Prevention

Handbook of HIV Prevention

Author: John L. Peterson

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1461541379

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This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the theories, methods and approaches for reducing HIV-associated risk behaviors. It represents the first single source of information about HIV prevention research in developed and developing countries. It will be an important resource for students, researchers and clinicians in the field.


Communities in Action

Communities in Action

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 583

ISBN-13: 0309452961

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In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.