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Factors Associated with Emergency Room Use among Injection Drug Users of African‐American, Hispanic and White European Background
Author(s) -
Lundgren Lena,
Chassler Deborah,
BenAmi Linsey,
Purington Timothy,
Schilling Robert
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
the american journal on addictions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.997
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-0391
pISSN - 1055-0496
DOI - 10.1080/10550490590949442
Subject(s) - medicine , mental health , ethnic group , substance abuse , logistic regression , psychiatry , bivariate analysis , medical emergency , family medicine , environmental health , statistics , mathematics , sociology , anthropology
This study examined the relationship between substance abuse treatment use, health services use, HIV status, and emergency room/hospital use for 507 injection drug users (IDUs). Logistic regression models showed that mental health status, severity of drug use and private health insurance were significantly associated with having used emergency room / hospital services in the past six months. History of substance abuse treatment use, positive HIV / AIDS diagnosis, mental health service use, ethnic racial background, gender, age, education and homelessness were not significant at either the bivariate or the multivariate level. These results point to the need to improve mental health screening and referrals through emergency room medical systems.