Prevalence and Correlates of Needle-Sharing Among New and Long-Term Injection Drug Users in Southwest China

• Published in: Substance use & misuse 2010-12, Vol.45 (14), p.2503-2523
• Main Authors: Zhang, Linglin, Li, Jie, Lai, Wenhong, Feng, Liao, Zeng, Yali, Liu, Li, Hu, Ying, Liu, Jianbo, Zhang, Xiaolin, Wu, Pingsheng, Vermund, Sten H., Jia, Yujiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; China; China - epidemiology; condom use; Condoms; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug Abuse; Drug Injection; Drug prevention; Drug use; Female; Health Behavior; HIV Infections - epidemiology; Humans; Injection drug user; Injections; Intervention; Interviews as Topic; Intravenous drug addicts; Male; Needle Sharing; Needle Sharing - statistics & numerical data; Peoples Republic of China; Prevalence; Prevention; Risk; Risk behaviour; risk factor; Risk Factors; Risk-Taking; Sexual Behavior; Substance Abuse, Intravenous; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1082-6084; 1532-2491
• DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2010.487234

Three community-based surveys recruited 4,310 injection drug users (IDUs) in China from 2004 to 2006. Of the participants, 54.4% were ≤3-year new IDUs; 63.9% reported injecting more than two times daily; 31.5% shared needles in the last six months; 37.4% shared equipments in the last month; 30.2% reported their regular sex partners injected drugs; and 23.5% had commercial sex, with 52.2% reporting no condom use during last sex. The risky injection practices (sharing needles/equipments and high injection frequency) were less frequent among new IDUs, emphasizing that effective prevention needs to identify and intervene with IDUs early on. The study's limitations are noted.