Declining Trends in the Rates of Assisted Illicit Drug Injecting

BACKGROUND:

Assisted injecting has been associated with increased risk of blood-borne infections, overdose, and other harms among people who inject drugs (PWID), particularly women. Given the changing availability of relevant harm reduction interventions in Vancouver, Canada, in recent years, we conducted a gender-based analysis to examine changes in rates and correlates of assisted injecting over time among active PWID.

METHODS:

Using data from a prospective cohort of PWID in Vancouver, we employed gender-stratified multivariable generalized estimating equations to examine trends in assisted injecting and identify the correlates during two periods: June 2006-November 2009 and December 2009-May 2014.

RESULTS:

Among 1119 participants, 376 (33.6 %) were females. Rates of assisted injecting declined between 2006 and 2014 among males (21.9 to 13.8 %) and females (37.0 to 25.6 %). In multivariable analyses, calendar year of interview also remained independently and negatively associated with assisted injecting among males (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.95, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 0.92-0.99) and females (AOR 0.93, 95 % CI 0.89-0.97). Syringe borrowing remained independently associated with assisted injecting throughout the study period among females (AOR 1.53, 95 % CI 1.10-2.11 during 2006-2009; AOR 2.15, 95 % CI 1.24-3.74 during 2009-2014) and during 2009-2014 among males (AOR 1.88, 95 % CI 1.02-3.48).

CONCLUSIONS:

Our findings demonstrate assisted injecting has significantly decreased for both males and females over the past decade. Nevertheless, rates of assisted injecting remain high, especially among women, and are associated with high-risk behavior, indicating a need to provide safer assisted injecting services to these vulnerable sub-populations of PWID.

Below:  Rates of requiring assistance with injecting among PWID by year of interview. PWID people who inject drugs

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/9NBBTM

By:  Pedersen JS1, Dong H2, Small W3,4, Wood E5,6, Nguyen P7, Kerr T8,9, Hayashi K10,11,12.

• 1Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada. jspeders@ucalgary.ca.
• 2British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. hdong@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 3British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. wsmall@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 4Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, 15A 1S6, Canada. wsmall@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 5British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. uhri-ew@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 6Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. uhri-ew@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 7British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. pnguyen@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 8British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. uhri-tk@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 9Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. uhri-tk@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 10British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. khayashi@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 11Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. khayashi@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• 12B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, University of British Columbia, St. Paul's Hospital, 608-1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6, Canada. khayashi@cfenet.ubc.ca.
• Harm Reduct J. 2016 Jan 27;13(1):2. doi: 10.1186/s12954-016-0092-3. 

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