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The Norwegian Injection Mark Study
Author(s) -
SKRETTING ASTRID,
SKOG OLEJØRGEN
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1989.tb00785.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , medicine , drugs of abuse , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , intravenous drug , substance abuse , psychiatry , demography , drug , family medicine , viral disease , philosophy , linguistics , sociology
Summary By examining persons arrested in Oslo during a certain period, we will try to obtain a better picture of intravenous drug abuse in Oslo. A pilot project was organized for 3 months during the autumn of 1987. In addition to having their arms examined, the arrestees were asked some questions about their abuse and HIV‐testing. The paper presents some data from the pilot period: 35% of the arrestees had marks from intravenous drug abuse (almost 2/3 of the females and slightly less than 1/3 of the males); 78% of them were men, 22% were women; the majority were in the age range 21–35 years; 53% stated that they injected opiates, 35% that they injected stimulants and 12% that they injected both types. Nearly 80% stated that they had been HIV‐tested. A larger proportion of users of opiates (88%) stated that they had been tested than users of stimulants (66%). The prevalence of HIV‐seropositive cases among the arrested intravenous abusers was 13.8%. In the paper we also discuss methodological aspects of the study.