Table 1.
Factors associated with public injecting among a cohort of injection drug-using street-involved youth (n = 162).
| Characteristic | Public Injecting n (%) n = 124* |
No Public Injecting n (%) n = 38* |
Odds Ratio (95% CI) |
p – value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (median, IQR) | 23 (21 – 25) | 23 (20 – 24) | 1.05 (0.92 – 1.19) | 0.502 |
| Sex | ||||
| Female | 42 (33.9) | 12 (33.3) | 1.02 (0.47 – 2.25) | 0.952 |
| Male | 82 (66.1) | 24 (66.7) | ||
| Aboriginal Ethnicity | ||||
| Yes | 23 (18.5) | 11 (29.7) | 0.54 (0.23 – 1.24) | 0.144 |
| No | 101 (81.5) | 26 (70.3) | ||
| Homeless† | ||||
| Yes | 108 (87.1) | 19 (51.4) | 6.39 (2.78 – 14.69) | <0.001 |
| No | 16 (12.9) | 18 (48.6) | ||
| Relationship Status | ||||
| Regular Partner | 30 (24.4) | 6 (16.2) | 1.67 (0.63 – 4.38) | 0.296 |
| Single/Dating | 93 (75.6) | 31 (83.8) | ||
| Attacked†‡ | ||||
| Yes | 66 (53.7) | 14 (37.8) | 1.90 (0.90 – 4.04) | 0.092 |
| No | 57 (46.3) | 23 (62.2) | ||
| Unprotected Intercourse† | ||||
| Yes | 74 (59.7) | 12 (32.4) | 3.09 (1.42 – 6.70) | 0.004 |
| No | 50 (40.3) | 25 (67.6) | ||
| Sex Work† | ||||
| Yes | 20 (16.1) | 9 (24.3) | 0.60 (0.25 – 1.46) | 0.255 |
| No | 104 (83.9) | 28 (75.7) | ||
| Number of Sex Partners† (median, IQR) | 1 (1 – 3) | 1 (0 – 4) | 0.99 (0.94 – 1.06) | 0.839 |
| Money Spent on Drugs | ||||
| ≥$50 per day | 66 (53.2) | 14 (37.8) | 1.87 (0.89 - 3.97) | 0.100 |
| <$50 per day | 58 (46.8) | 23 (62.2) | ||
| Drug Dealing† | ||||
| Yes | 83 (66.9) | 17 (47.2) | 2.26 (1.06 – 4.81) | 0.032 |
| No | 41 (33.1) | 19 (52.8) | ||
| Crack Cocaine Use† | ||||
| Yes | 92 (76.0) | 18 (51.4) | 3.00 (1.37 – 6.56) | 0.005 |
| No | 29 (24.0) | 17 (48.6) | ||
| Inject Cocaine† | ||||
| Yes | 40 (33.6) | 12 (34.3) | 0.97 (0.44 – 2.15) | 0.941 |
| No | 79 (66.4) | 23 (65.7) | ||
| Inject Heroin† | ||||
| Yes | 92 (76.7) | 17 (48.6) | 3.48 (1.58 – 7.64) | 0.001 |
| No | 28 (23.3) | 18 (51.4) | ||
| Inject Methamphetamine† | ||||
| Yes | 83 (69.2) | 12 (54.3) | 1.89 (0.87 – 4.08) | 0.103 |
| No | 37 (30.8) | 16 (45.7) | ||
| Dropped Syringe Outdoors† | ||||
| Yes | 43 (35.2) | 2 (6.1) | 8.44 (1.93 – 36.97) | <0.001 |
| No | 79 (64.8) | 31 (93.9) | ||
| Syringe Sharing† | ||||
| Yes | 43 (35.0) | 4 (23.1) | 4.43 (1.47 – 13.35) | 0.004 |
| No | 80 (65.0) | 33 (89.2) | ||
| Filter Drugs | ||||
| >75% of the time | 40 (32.3) | 11 (31.4) | 1.04 (0.46 – 2.33) | 0.926 |
| ≤75% of the time | 84 (67.7) | 24 (68.6) | ||
| Clean Injection Site | ||||
| >75% of the time | 48 (39.0) | 23 (63.9) | 0.36 (0.17 – 0.78) | 0.008 |
| ≤75% of the time | 75 (61.0) | 13 (36.1) | ||
| Non-Fatal Overdose† | ||||
| Yes | 29 (23.4) | 8 (21.6) | 1.11 (0.46 – 2.68) | 0.823 |
| No | 95 (76.6) | 29 (78.4) |
Notes: Public spaces are defined as public lavatories, streets, alleys, parks, abandoned buildings, and other public settings;
†
refers to activities in the past 6 months;
*
all cells don't add to total n due to missing data;
‡
Attacked refers to responding “yes” to the question, “Have you been attacked, assaulted, or suffered any kind of violence in the past 6 months?”; Fisher's exact test used to calculate p-value when one or greater cells were ≤ 5.