Table 1.
Characteristics of syringe service clients in southern Wisconsin with respect to FTS use
| Characteristics | All | FTS use | No FTS use |
|---|---|---|---|
| N = 341 | N = 274 | N = 67 | |
| n(%) or m(sd) | |||
| Current drug of choice | |||
| Heroin | 241 (70.7) | 202 (73.7) | 39 (58.2) |
| Fentanyl | 43 (12.6) | 36 (13.1) | 7 (10.4) |
| Opioid analgesics | 10 (2.9) | 2 (0.7) | 8 (11.9) |
| Cocaine or Crack Cocaine | 32 (9.4) | 23 (8.4) | 9 (13.4) |
| Methamphetamine | 15 (4.4) | 11 (4.0) | 4 (6.0) |
| Synthetics1 | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Prescription anxiety drugs | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Prescription amphetamines | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Some other drug | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Usual route of drug use | |||
| Inject or shoot it into a vein | 299 (87.9) | 255 (93.4) | 44 (65.7) |
| Inject or shoot it into a muscle | 4 (1.2) | 2 (0.7) | 2 (3.0) |
| Snort it | 24 (7.1) | 10 (3.7) | 14 (20.9) |
| Smoke it | 12 (3.5) | 6 (2.2) | 6 (9.0) |
| Eat or swallow it | 1 (0.3) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (1.5) |
| Insert it rectally | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Use skin popping | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Some other method | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Drug of choice use frequency in past 30 days | |||
| Less than once per day | 18 (5.3) | 12 (4.4) | 6 (9.0) |
| 1 time per day | 15 (4.4) | 10 (3.6) | 5 (7.5) |
| 2 times per day | 40 (11.7) | 30 (10.9) | 10 (14.9) |
| 3 or more times per day | 268 (78.6) | 222 (81.0) | 46 (68.7) |
| Polysubstance use2 | 252 (73.9) | 210 (76.6) | 42 (62.7) |
| Years of drug use | 12.2 (8.2) | 11.9 (7.9) | 13.0 (9.4) |
| Lifetime count of opioid overdose | 4.4 (8.4) | 4.7 (9.1) | 3.3 (4.5) |
Abbreviations: FTS, fentanyl test strips; m: mean; sd: standard deviation; adj: adjusted; unadj: unadjusted; GED: General Educational Development
Missing: Gender – 2; Race and Ethnicity – 1; Education – 1; Employment – 1; Years of drug use – 3; Current drug of choice – 1; Usual route – 1; Overdose count – 4;
Associations with continuous variables were tested using Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon tests and associations with categorical variables were tested with chi-square tests
1Synthetics refers to synthetic opioids such as U47700, U4 or “Pink.”
2Polysubstance use is defined as use of more than one category of drugs excluding alcohol and marijuana