Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jun 19;31(10):1483-1488.
doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000001501.

Association of HIV diagnosis rates and laws criminalizing HIV exposure in the United States

Patricia Sweeney  1 , Simone C Gray, David W Purcell, Jenny Sewell, Aruna Surendera Babu, Brett A Tarver, Joseph Prejean, Jonathan Mermin
Affiliations

Association of HIV diagnosis rates and laws criminalizing HIV exposure in the United States

Patricia Sweeney et al. AIDS. .

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether state criminal exposure laws are associated with HIV and stage 3 (AIDS) diagnosis rates in the United States.

Design: We assessed the relationship between HIV and stage 3 (AIDS) diagnosis data from the National HIV Surveillance System and the presence of a state criminal exposure law as identified through WestlawNext by using generalized estimating equations.

Methods: We limited analysis to persons aged at least 13 years with diagnosed HIV infection or AIDS reported to the National HIV Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The primary outcome measures were rates of diagnosis of HIV (2001-2010 in 33 states) and AIDS (1994-2010 in 50 states) per 100 000 individuals per year. In addition to criminal exposure laws, state-level factors evaluated for inclusion in models included income, unemployment, poverty, education, urbanicity, and race/ethnicity.

Results: At the end of the study period, 30 states had laws criminalizing HIV exposure. In bivariate models (P < 0.05), unemployment, poverty, education, urbanicity, and race/ethnicity were associated with HIV and AIDS diagnoses. In final models, proportion of adults with less than a high school education and percentage of the population living in urban areas were significantly associated with HIV and AIDS diagnoses over time; criminal exposure laws were not associated with diagnosis rates.

Conclusion: We found no association between HIV or AIDS diagnosis rates and criminal exposure laws across states over time, suggesting that these laws have had no detectable HIV prevention effect.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

All authors declare no conflicts of interest. All co-authors were employees of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), contractors of CDC, or Orise Fellows while contributing to this manuscript.

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV Surveillance Report, 2014; Vol. 26. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveil.... [Accessed 15 December 2016]
    1. Centers for Disease Control, Prevention. HIV infection: United States, 2008 and 2010. In CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report: United States, 2013. MMWR Suppl 2013; 62 (Suppl 03):112–119.
    1. National HIV/AIDS strategy for the United States. Available from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/NHAS.pdf. [Accessed 19 February 2014]
    1. National HIV/AIDS strategy for the United States: updated to 2020. Available from: https://www.aids.gov/federal-resources/national-hiv-aids-strategy/nhas-u.... [Accessed 10 April 2017]
    1. Sen A, Luong M. Estimating the impact of beer prices on the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases: cross-providence and time series evidence from Canada. Contemp Econ Policy 2008; 26:505–517.