Table 5.
Impact of heroin maintenance programme on social integration and illegal activities, Geneva, 1995-6. Values are numbers (percentages) unless stated otherwise
| Variable | Experimental group (n=27)
|
Control group (n=21)
|
P value‡ for difference between groups | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Follow up† | Baseline | Follow up† | |||
| No accommodation | 7 (26) | 0* | 4 (19) | 1 (5) | 1.00§ | |
| Has stable partner | 11 (41) | 12 (44) | 6 (29) | 7 (33) | 1.00 | |
| Lives with drug user | 11 (41) | 10 (37) | 6 (29) | 3 (14) | 1.00 | |
| All or most friends outside drug scene | 5 (18) | 10 (37) | 5 (24) | 9 (43) | 0.52 | |
| Occupational status: | ||||||
| Neither work nor social security | 10 (37) | 6 (22) | 8 (38) | 4 (19) | 1.00 | |
| Employment | 4 (15) | 6 (22) | 4 (19) | 3 (14) | 0.40 | |
| Social security, no employment | 13 (48) | 15 (56) | 9 (43) | 14 (67) | 0.44 | |
| Occupational status described as “living off the street” | 21 (78) | 5 (18)*** | 13 (62) | 8 (38) | 1.00 | |
| Mean (SD) No of days worked in past 6 months | 18.7 (29.8) | 18.5 (30.0) | 16.7 (30.9) | 8.8 (20.4) | 0.36 | |
| Commercial sex in past 6 months | 4 (15) | 3 (11) | 2 (10) | 2 (10) | 1.00 | |
| Charges in past 6 months: | ||||||
| Drug use/possession | 11 (41) | 3 (11)* | 2 (10) | 8 (38) | 0.008 | |
| Drug dealing | 7 (26) | 0* | 1 (5) | 2 (10) | 0.067 | |
| Property/theft | 7 (26) | 1 (4)* | 2 (10) | 5 (24) | 0.015 | |
| Aggression | 3 (11) | 1 (4) | 1 (5) | 1 (5) | 1.00 | |
| Traffic offence | 2 (7) | 0 | 1 (5) | 0 | 1.00 | |
| Other | 3 (11) | 0 | 0 | 3 (14) | 0.10 | |
| Any charge in past 6 months | 20 (74) | 5 (19)*** | 7 (33) | 12 (57) | 0.0004 | |
| Mean (SD) total number of charges in past 6 months | 2.1 (2.2) | 0.2 (0.5)*** | 0.4 (0.7) | 1.1 (1.3)* | <0.0001 | |
†
Significance of comparisons between baseline and follow up denoted by *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Continuous variables: Wilcoxon matched pairs rank sum test (exact), dichotomous variables: McNemar’s test (exact).
‡
Continuous variables: Mann-Whitney U test (exact), dichotomous variables: test of homogeneity of McNemar odds ratio (exact).
§
Fisher’s exact test on proportion of subjects without accommodation at baseline who found accommodation on follow up.