Pittsburgh Girls Study: Substance Use and HIV Risk Behaviors/STI in Young Adulthood

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R01 · $132,008 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

ABSTRACT This 1-year supplement to the Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS), a large longitudinal community study of young adult women, will capture urgently needed data on factors at individual (e.g., smoke or vape tobacco/nicotine, cannabis), social (family, peer), and neighborhood (e.g., perception of neighborhood disorganization) levels associated with increased risk for COVID-19 infection and illness progression, particularly among young adult women who smoke or vape tobacco or cannabis. Data to be collected with supplemental funds will add new COVID-19 items to the PGS’s 20th annual wave (web survey) in the two youngest cohorts (ages 24-25; N=1,048; 56% Black, 37% White), to be fielded in early June 2020, after the estimated peak in COVID-19- related mortality in Pennsylvania. New COVID-19 items will assess symptoms and related testing and health care (e.g., barriers to care, insurance), beliefs regarding transmission and personal infection risk, infection prevention behaviors, and the broad impacts of COVID-19 on quality of life (e.g., job loss, food insecurity). New COVID-19 items to be included in wave 20 will add to 19 annual waves of PGS data collected since childhood on substance use/disorder (SUD), physical health (e.g., diabetes, asthma, obesity, cardiovascular disease) and healthcare, mental health, personal (e.g., employment, resilience), and environmental (e.g., geocoded data) risk and protective factors associated with risk for sexually transmitted infection/HIV (parent R01). This supplement aims to: (1) investigate differences by race among Black and White young women in pathways of risk and protection for COVID-19 infection and progression at individual (e.g., smoking and vaping behavior; perceived risk for and behaviors to prevent COVID-19 infection), social (e.g., extent and duration of social distancing), and neighborhood levels (e.g., perceived community cohesion, census tract population density); and (2) examine impacts of COVID-19 on women’s substance use/SUD, access to and use of COVID-19- related health care, physical and mental health (e.g., response to stress/traumatic event), employment and financial status, and interpersonal relations (e.g., effects of social distancing). Results from this 1-year supplement have implications for addressing racial disparities in risk for COVID-19 infection and its broad impacts, in the context of COVID-19’s intersection with substance use/SUD (particularly smoking/ vaping tobacco, cannabis), among women, an understudied population, to guide effective and equitable public policy.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10170477
Project number
3R01DA012237-20S1
Recipient
RUTGERS BIOMEDICAL/HEALTH SCIENCES-RBHS
Principal Investigator
Tammy Chung
Activity code
R01
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
$132,008
Award type
3
Project period
2000-02-15 → 2022-04-30