Differences by ancestry in sociodemographics and risk behaviors among Latinos with AIDS. The Supplement to HIV and AIDS Surveillance Project Group.

To describe differences by ancestry, we interviewed 1,785 self-identified Latinos who have been reported to have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome from 12 state or local health departments. Central American men and women were the least acculturated group: > 90% were born outside the USA, and more than half answered the questionnaire in Spanish. Overall, except among Puerto Ricans, male-male sex was the most common mode of exposure to human immunodeficiency virus. Among persons born in the United States, a similar proportion of Puerto Rican women (52%) and Mexican women (47%) had injected drugs; however, Puerto Rican men were more likely (p < 0.008) to have injected drugs (51%) than all men (31%). These differences by ancestry should be taken into account when providing HIV prevention and treatment services to Latinos.