Prescription opioid injection among young people who inject drugs in New York City: a mixed-methods description and asso
- PDF / 556,550 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 45 Downloads / 194 Views
(2020) 17:22
RESEARCH
Open Access
Prescription opioid injection among young people who inject drugs in New York City: a mixed-methods description and associations with hepatitis C virus infection and overdose Pedro Mateu-Gelabert1*, Honoria Guarino1, Jon E. Zibbell2, Jennifer Teubl3, Chunki Fong1, Elizabeth Goodbody1, Brian Edlin4, Carli Salvati1 and Samuel R. Friedman5
Abstract Aim: Evidence is emerging that prescription opioid (PO) injection is associated with increased health risks. This mixed-methods study compares the mechanics of PO and heroin injection and examines the demographic and drug-related correlates of lifetime PO injection in a sample of young people who inject drugs (PWID) in New York City (NYC). Methods: Qualitative analysis of 46 semi-structured interviews with young adult opioid users ages 18–32. Interview segments describing PO injection were analyzed for common themes. Quantitative analysis of structured interviews with 539 young adult opioid users ages 18–29 recruited via respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Analyses are based on the subsample of 353 participants (65%) who reported having ever injected drugs. All variables were assessed via self-report, except hepatitis C virus status, which was established via rapid antibody testing. Results: Participants described injecting POs and reported that preparing abuse-deterrent pills for injection is especially cumbersome, requiring extended manipulation and large amounts of water. Injecting POs, in contrast to injecting heroin, requires repeated injections per injection episode. Among RDS-recruited participants, the majority of injectors reported injecting POs, sporadically (33%) or regularly (26%), but often infrequently (≤ 7 days/month). In separate multivariable analyses controlling for syringe- and cooker-sharing, ever injecting POs was a significant predictor of testing HCV antibody-positive (AOR = 2.97) and lifetime experience of non-fatal overdose (AOR = 2.51). Ever injecting POs was independently associated with lifetime homelessness (AOR = 2.93) and having grown up in a middle-income ($51,000–100,000/year vs. ≤ $50,000/ year; AOR = 1.86) or a high-income household (> $100,000/year vs. ≤ $50,000/year; AOR = 2.54). (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH), 55 West 125th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherw
Data Loading...
