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

Abstract: This 1-year supplement to the Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS), a large longitudinal community study of youngadult 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) levelsassociated with increased risk for COVID-19 infection and illness progression, particularly among young adultwomen who smoke or vape tobacco or cannabis. Data to be collected with supplemental funds will add newCOVID-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 healthcare (e.g., barriers to care, insurance), beliefs regarding transmission and personal infection risk, infectionprevention behaviors, and the broad impacts of COVID-19 on quality of life (e.g., job loss, food insecurity). NewCOVID-19 items to be included in wave 20 will add to 19 annual waves of PGS data collected since childhoodon 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., geocodeddata) risk and protective factors associated with risk for sexually transmitted infection/HIV (parent R01). Thissupplement aims to: (1) investigate differences by race among Black and White young women in pathways ofrisk 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 socialdistancing), 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 andfinancial status, and interpersonal relations (e.g., effects of social distancing). Results from this 1-yearsupplement have implications for addressing racial disparities in risk for COVID-19 infection and its broadimpacts, in the context of COVID-19's intersection with substance use/SUD (particularly smoking/ vapingtobacco, cannabis), among women, an understudied population, to guide effective and equitable public policy.