Journal
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
Volume 89, Issue 2-3, Pages 214-222Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.12.035
Keywords
syringe coverage; HIV prevention; needle exchange programs; syringe disposal; California; injection drug use
Categories
Funding
- NIDA NIH HHS [R01 DA014210-02, R01 DA014210-04, R01 DA014210-01A1, R01 DA014210, R01 DA014210-03, R01 DA 14210] Funding Source: Medline
- PHS HHS [R06/CCR 918667] Funding Source: Medline
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Objective: To determine if adequate syringe coverage - one shot for one syringe - among syringe exchange program (SEP) clients is associated with injection-related HIV risk behaviors and syringe disposal. Design: HIV risk assessments with 1577 injection drug users (IDUs) recruited from 24 SEPs in California between 2001 and 2003. Individual syringe coverage was calculated as a proportion of syringes retained from SEP visits to total number of injections in the last 30 days. Results: Participants were divided into four groups based on syringe coverage: <50%, 50-99%, 100-149%, and 150% or more. In multivariate logistic regression, SEP clients with less than 50% syringe coverage had significantly higher odds of reporting receptive syringe sharing in the last 30 days (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4, 3.6) and those with 150% or more coverage had lower odds of reporting receptive syringe sharing (AOR = 0.5; 95%CI = 0.3, 0.8) as compared to SEP clients with adequate syringe coverage of 100-149%. Similar associations were observed for other main outcomes of distributive syringe sharing and syringe re-use. No differences in safe syringe disposal were observed by syringe coverage. Conclusions: Individual syringe coverage is strongly associated with safer injection behaviors without impacting syringe disposal among SEP clients. Syringe coverage is a useful measure for determining if IDUs are obtaining sufficient syringes to lower HIV risk. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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