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Objective:

Determine risk factors for heterosexually transmitted HIV infection among African Americans.

Methods:

Population-based case-control study of black men and women, aged 18-61 years, reported to the North Carolina state health department with a recent diagnosis of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection and age-and gender-matched controls randomly selected from the state driver s license file. A lower-risk stratum of respondents was created to identify transmission risks among people who denied high-risk behaviors.

Results:

Most case subjects reported annual household income< $16,000, history of sexually transmitted diseases, and high-risk behaviors, including crack cocaine use and sex partners who injected drugs or used crack cocaine. However, 27% of case subjects (and 69% of control subjects) denied high-risk sexual partners or behavior. Risk factors for HIV infection in this subset of …