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Health and safety risks associated with public injecting among people who inject drugs in B angkok, T hailand
Author(s) -
Leung Leslie Tze Fung,
Ti Lianping,
Hayashi Kanna,
Suwannawong Paisan,
Kaplan Karyn,
Wood Evan,
Kerr Thomas
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1111/dar.12060
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , medicine , odds ratio , heroin , confidence interval , public health , injection drug use , logistic regression , demography , multivariate analysis , drug , family medicine , environmental health , psychiatry , drug injection , geography , nursing , archaeology , sociology
and Aims The injection of illicit drugs in public spaces is known to pose significant health risks to people who inject drugs ( IDU ). However, to our knowledge this practice has not been explored in the A sian context. Therefore, we sought to characterise the prevalence of and factors associated with public injecting among a community‐recruited sample of IDU in B angkok, T hailand. Design and Methods Data were derived from the M itsampan C ommunity R esearch P roject between J uly and O ctober 2011. Using multivariate logistic regression, this cross‐sectional study examined the prevalence and correlates of public injecting within the past six months among 437 IDU participants. Results In total, 121 (27.7%) participants reported injecting drugs in a public space within the past six months. In multivariate analyses, public drug injection was independently associated with male gender [adjusted odds ratio ( AOR ) 2.51, 95% confidence interval ( CI) ) 1.29–5.22], weekly heroin injection ( AOR 2.19, 95% CI 1.27–3.77), assisted injection ( AOR 1.93, 95% CI 1.06–3.49), rushed injection ( AOR 4.36, 95% CI 2.65–7.24), incarceration ( AOR 2.27, 95% CI 1.01–5.04) and noticing police presence where drugs are bought or used ( AOR 1.83, 95% CI 1.06–3.19). Discussion and Conclusion A substantial proportion of T hai IDU in our sample reported recent public drug injection. This behaviour was independently associated with a wide range of individual and contextual factors that pose significant health and safety risks to the IDU . These findings highlight the importance of addressing the broader social and physical risk environment surrounding IDU as a means of preventing negative health outcomes among this population. [Leung LTF, Ti L, Hayashi K, Suwannawong P, Kaplan K, Wood E, Kerr T. Health and safety risks associated with public injecting among people who inject drugs in B angkok, T hailand. Drug Alcohol Rev 2013;32:582–587]