Table 1.

Injection Drug User Quality of Life (IDUQOL) life area names and descriptions

Life Area	Description
Being Useful	e.g., volunteering, employment, participating in the community, helping others
Community Resources	e.g., food bank, soup kitchen, shelters, outreach programs, social service agencies
Drugs	drug use – e.g., alcohol, heroin, cocaine, crack
Drug Treatment	e.g., detox, recovery house, residential treatment, methadone, abstinence
Education	e.g., formal schooling, literacy programs
Family	e.g., parents, children, siblings, foster families (not friends)
Feeling Good about Yourself	e.g., self-esteem, self-worth
Friends	anyone you consider a friend (but not family)
Harm Reduction	access to, and experience with: e.g., methadone treatment, needle exchange, safe injection programs, prescription heroin
Health	mental and physical health, including HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, disability, schizophrenia
Health Care	access to, and experience with: physicians, nurses, hospitals, clinics, ER
Housing	e.g., owning, renting, house, apartment, hotel room, shelters, homeless
Independence and Free Choice	e.g., making your own decisions, autonomy, being able to do things on your own, having individual rights
Leisure Activities	e.g., music, sports, movies, books, parties
Money	e.g., income, welfare, cash flow, meeting your needs
Neighborhood Safety	e.g., crime, violence, police harassment
Partner(s)	e.g., spouse, common-law partner, same-sex partner, girlfriend or boyfriend (not casual partners)
Sex	e.g., sexual intimacy, quantity or quality of sex, sex in exchange for money or drugs, sexual abuse
Spirituality	e.g., religion, faith, belief in a higher being or spiritual world (or not)
Transportation	e.g., car, taxi, public transportation, getting to places you need to go