Willingness to Access an In-Hospital Supervised Injection Facility among Hospitalized People Who Use Illicit Drugs
BACKGROUND:
Despite
the reliance on abstinence-based drug policies within hospital settings,
illicit drug use is common among hospitalized patients with severe drug
addiction. Hospitalized patients who use illicit drugs (PWUDs) have been known
to resort to high-risk behavior to conceal their drug use from healthcare
providers. Novel interventions with the potential to reduce high-risk behavior
among PWUDs in hospital settings have not been well studied.
OBJECTIVE:
The
objective of the study was to examine factors associated with willingness to
access an in-hospital supervised injection facility (SIF).
DESIGN:
Data were
derived from participants enrolled in 2 Canadian prospective cohort studies
involving PWUDs between June 2013 and November 2013. A cross-sectional study
surveying various sociodemographic characteristics, drug use patterns, and
experiences was conducted.
SETTING:
MEASUREMENTS:
Bivariable
and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to explore factors
significantly associated with willingness to access an in-hospital SIF.
RESULTS:
Among 732
participants, 499 (68.2%) would be willing to access an in-hospital SIF. In multivariable
analyses, factors positively and significantly associated with willingness to
access an in-hospital SIF included: daily heroin injection (adjusted odds ratio
[AOR] = 1.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.20-3.11); having used illicit
drugs in hospital (AOR = 1.63; 95% CI: 1.18-2.26); and having recently used an
SIF (AOR = 1.53; 95% CI: 1.10-2.15).
CONCLUSIONS:
Our
findings highlight the potential of in-hospital SIFs to complement existing
harm reduction programs that serve PWUD. Moreover, an in-hospital SIF may minimize the
harms associated with high-risk illicit drug use in the hospital.
- 1British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment