Prevalence of HIV and Related Factors in Female Prisoners: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

In most countries, the prevalence of HIV among prisoners, particularly women, is higher than in the general population due to various risk factors both before and during incarceration. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of HIV and its associated factors among female prisoners in Shahr-e Rey in the year 2016.

This retrospective cross-sectional study was based on file reviews among female prisoners admitted to the quarantine unit of Shahr-e Rey Women's Prison from september 2016 to febuarary 2017. The participants were selected using a convenience sampling method. The study population consisted of women who visited the quarantine unit during the specified period. Data collection was conducted in two phases. First, after obtaining consent, participants were asked to respond to questions posed by the interviewer regarding their age and HIV-related risk factors. Then, a rapid HIV test was used, followed by ELISA and Western blot tests to confirm the diagnosis in HIV-positive patients. The collected data were entered into SPSS software version 26, and quantitative data were reported as mean and standard deviation, while qualitative data were reported as frequency and percentage. The chi-square and independent t-test were used to examine the association between various variables and HIV status.

The prevalence of HIV infection among female prisoners was 1.7%. The prevalence of individual risk factors, including anal intercourse, injection drug use, and having sexual relations with more than one partner in the past six months, were 24%, 0.7%, and 21.6%, respectively. No significant relationship was found between age, history of injection drug use, anal intercourse, or having sexual relations with more than one partner in the past six months and HIV infection (P-value>0.05).

According to the present study, the prevalence of HIV infection among female prisoners is 1.7%, which is higher than that in the general population. This highlights female prisoners as a critical target group both for timely diagnosis and treatment of those infected and for preventing further spread of the infection.