Abstract
Background: Although needle and syringe sharing is one of the main routs of transmission of HIV in several countries in the middle east, very little is known about how socio-economic status of injecting drug users (IDUs) is linked to the receptive syringe sharing behaviors in these countries.Aim: To study socio-economic correlates of receptive needle and syringe sharing among IDUs in Iran.Methods: The study used data from the Unhide Risk Study, a national survey of IDUs. This study sampled 636 IDUs (91% male) via snowball sampling from eight provinces in Iran in 2009. Socio-demographic and drug use characteristics were collected. We used a logistic regression to determine factors associated with receptive needle and syringe sharing during the past 6 months.Results: From 636 IDUs enrolled in this study, 68% (n = 434) reported receptive needle and syringe sharing behaviors in the past 6 months. Odds of receptive needle and syringe sharing in the past 6 months was lower among IDUs who were male [odds ratios (OR) = 0.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.12–0.70], had higher education (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.64–0.86) but higher among those who were unemployed (OR = 4.05, 95% CI = 1.50–10.94), and were single (OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.02–2.11).Conclusion: This study presented factors associated with risk of receptive needle and syringe sharing among Iranian IDUs. This information may be used for HIV prevention and harm reduction purposes. Socio-economic status of Iranian IDUs may be closely linked to high-risk injecting behaviors among them.
Highlights
Increasing trend of HIV and AIDS is a global health challenge [1]
From 636 injecting drug users (IDUs) enrolled in this study, 68% (n = 434) reported receptive needle and syringe sharing behaviors in the past 6 months
Odds of receptive needle and syringe sharing in the past 6 months was lower among IDUs who were male [odds ratios (OR) = 0.29, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.12–0.70], had higher education (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.64–0.86) but higher among those who were unemployed (OR = 4.05, 95% CI = 1.50–10.94), and were single (OR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.02–2.11)
Summary
Increasing trend of HIV and AIDS is a global health challenge [1]. In several Middle Eastern countries, this epidemic is closely attached to the pattern of high-risk injecting behaviors among injecting drug users (IDUs) [2]. In Iran, needle-sharing behaviors have been consistently shown to be a main route of HIV transmission [4,5,6,7,8]. High prevalence of HIV and other blood born infections among Iranian IDUs have been attributed to their high rate risk-behaviors such as shared injection and needle sharing [3, 6,7,8, 19, 20]. Needle and syringe sharing is one of the main routs of transmission of HIV in several countries in the middle east, very little is known about how socio-economic status of injecting drug users (IDUs) is linked to the receptive syringe sharing behaviors in these countries
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