Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on January 17, 2007
Journal of Public Health 2007 29(1):35-39; doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdl090
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Changes in injecting practices associated with the use of a medically supervised safer injection facility
Jo-Anne Stoltz, PhD1
Evan Wood, PhD1,2
Will Small, MA1
Kathy Li, MSc1
Mark Tyndall, MD, FRCPC1,2
Julio Montaner, MD, FRCPC1,2
Thomas Kerr, PhD1
1 Clinical Activities, British Columbia Centre of Excellence in HIV/AIDS and 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Address correspondence to Jo-Anne Stoltz, E-mail: jstoltz{at}cfenet.ubc.ca
Injection drug users (IDUs) are vulnerable to serious health complications resulting from unsafe injection practices. We examined whether the use of a supervised safer injection facility (SIF) promoted change in injecting practices among a representative sample of 760 IDUs who use a SIF in Vancouver, Canada. Consistent SIF use was compared with inconsistent use on a number of self-reported changes in injecting practice variables. More consistent SIF use is associated with positive changes in injecting practices, including less reuse of syringes, use of sterile water, swabbing injection sites, cooking/filtering drugs, less rushed injections, safe syringe disposal and less public injecting.
Keywords: epidemiology, HIV/AIDS, prevention, substance abuse