Most people who inject drugs (PWID) were first initiated
into injection by a current PWID. Few studies have examined PWID who assist
others into drug injection. Our goal is to describe the prevalence of and risk
factors for initiating someone into injection in the last 12 months.
We recruited a cross-sectional sample of PWID (N=605) in
California from 2011 to 2013. We examined bivariate and multivariate risk
factors for initiating someone into injection with a focus on behaviors that
might encourage injection initiation such as injecting in front of non-PWID,
describing how to inject to non-PWID, and willingness to initiate someone into
drug injection.
Having initiated someone into injection was reported by 34%
of PWID overall and 7% in the last 12 months. Forty-four PWID had assisted 431
people into injection in the past year. Factors independently associated with
initiating someone into injection in the last 12 months were self-reported
likelihood of initiating someone in the future, having injected another PWID in past
month, having described how
to inject to non-injectors, and non-injection powder
cocaine use in past month while controlling for
study site.
Active PWID are important in facilitating the process of
drug injection uptake. Interventions to reduce initiation should include
efforts to change behaviors and intentions among PWID that are associated with
injection uptake among others.
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- 1Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute for Prevention Research, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California Soto Street Building, SSB 2001 N. Soto Street, MC 9239, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. Electronic address: rbluthen@usc.edu.
- 2Urban Health Program, RTI International, 351 California St., San Francisco, CA 94104, USA.
- 3Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute for Prevention Research, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California Soto Street Building, SSB 2001 N. Soto Street, MC 9239, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
- 4Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, 85 Commercial Rd., Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia.
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