Racial Differences in HIV and HCV Risk Behaviors, Transmission, and Prevention Knowledge among Non-Treatment-Seeking Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder.

In light of New York’s recently reinforced strategy to end the AIDS epidemic by expanding testing, treatment, and access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), we assessed drug use and sexual risk behaviors, along with HIV/Hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission and prevention knowledge among non-treatment-seeking adults with opioid use disorder (OUD) in New York City. Over the course of 18 months, volunteers screening for research studies in the Opioid Laboratory at the New York State Psychiatric Institute completed a locally developed self-assessment questionnaire. A total of 138 adults with OUD (24 female, 114 male) with a mean age of 46.5 years (SD = 9.5 yrs) were assessed. Significant differences among the four racial/ethnic subgroups (n = 65 African-Americans, n = 34 Hispanics, n = 31 Caucasians or Whites, n = 8 Multiracial) were found. Whites were the youngest (p = 0.001), most frequently injecting drugs (p

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