Factors contributing to retention of not-in-treatment drug users in an HIV/AIDS outreach prevention project

SUMMARY Studies have attempted to identify the characteristics of substance-abusing clients that are related to premature termination from alcohol and drug treatment. Few studies, however, have looked at predictors of loss to follow-up among drug users participating in HIV/AIDS prevention projects. This paper develops and tests models of program retention employing data from approximately 250 not-in-treatment drug users enrolled in an outreach based HIV risk reduction program. Logistic regression was used to fit a model which included measures of: (1) demographic characteristics including: age and ethnicity; (2) social environmental factors including: living situation and type of network connection; (3) risk behaviors including: composite scores for drug use in the past 30 days and history of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs); and (4) program factors including: outreach workers' knowledge of clients and number of intervention sessions received. Findings suggest that social environmental and program fac...