A comparison of syringe disposal practices among injection drug users in a city with versus a city without needle and syringe programs

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Drug Alcohol Depend
• Personal Author:
  Tookes, Hansel E. ; Kral, Alex H. ; Wenger, Lynn D. ; Cardenas, Gabriel A. ; Martinez, Alexis N. ; Sherman, Recinda L. ; Pereyra, Margaret ; Forrest, David W. ; Lalota, Marlene ; Metsch, Lisa R.
• Description:
  Background
  
  The United States (U.S.) approved use of federal funds for needle and syringe programs (NSPs) in December 2009. This study compares syringe disposal practices in a U.S. city with NSPs to a U.S. city without NSPs by examining the prevalence of improperly discarded syringes in public places and the self-reported syringe disposal practices of injection drug users (IDUs) in the two cities.
  
  Methods
  
  We conducted visual inspection walkthroughs in a random sample of the top-quartile of drug-affected neighborhoods in San Francisco, California (a city with NSPs) and Miami, Florida (a city without NSPs). We also conducted quantitative surveys of adult IDUs in San Francisco (N=602) and Miami (N=448).
  
  Results
  
  In the visual inspections, we found 44 syringes/1000 census blocks in San Francisco, and 371/1000 census blocks in Miami. Survey results showed that in San Francisco 13% of syringes IDUs reported using in the 30 days preceding the study interviews were disposed of improperly versus 95% of syringes by IDUs in Miami. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, IDUs in Miami had over 34 times the adjusted odds of public syringe disposal relative to IDUs in San Francisco (adjusted odds ratio=34.2, 95% CI = 21.92, 53.47).
  
  Conclusions
  
  We found eight-fold more improperly disposed syringes on walkthroughs in the city without NSPs compared to the city with NSPs, which was corroborated by survey data. NSPs may help IDUs dispose of their syringes safely in cities with large numbers of IDUs.
  
  
• Keywords:
  Adolescent Adult Age Factors Confidence Intervals Data Collection Female Florida Hepatitis HIV HIV Seropositivity Humans Ill-Housed Persons Injection Drug Users (IDUs) Male Middle Aged Needle-Exchange Programs Needle And Syringe Programs (NSPs) Needle Sharing Odds Ratio Residence Characteristics San Francisco Sex Factors Socioeconomic Factors Substance Abuse, Intravenous Syringes Young Adult

  More +
• Source:
  Drug Alcohol Depend. 2011; 123(1-3):255-259
• Pubmed ID:
  22209091
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC3358593
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 DA023377/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U62 PS000967/PS/NCHHSTP CDC HHSUnited States/ ; P30 AI073961/AI/NIAID NIH HHSUnited States/ ; 5U62PS000967-02/PS/NCHHSTP CDC HHSUnited States/ ; 5P30AI073961/AI/NIAID NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 DA021627/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 DA021627-01A1/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  123
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:36faa765fe2c2087b0dac06b550ca29cd8ea605fc7e2b92a2d026bf788d9900f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/33370/cdc_33370_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 866.77 KB ]