Table 1.
Characteristics of study participants at baseline stratified by self-report of a transition into employment over the course of the observation period (n=1579)
| Employment over study period |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Total (n = 1579) | Yes (29.6%) (n = 467) | No (70.4%) (n = 1112) | p - value |
| Socio-demographic characteristics | ||||
| Age (med, IQR)a | 32.6 (25.6–40.1) | 32.5 (25.0–39.5) | 33.5 (25.9–40.5) | 0.059 |
| Female gender | 580 (36.7) | 117 (25.1) | 463 (41.6) | <0.001 |
| Ethnicity | ||||
| White | 933 (59.1) | 291 (62.3) | 642 (57.7) | 0.091 |
| Aboriginal ancestry | 428 (27.1) | 108 (23.1) | 320 (28.8) | 0.021 |
| Asian | 73 (4.6) | 25 (5.4) | 48 (4.3) | 0.371 |
| Other | 145 (9.2) | 43 (9.2) | 102 (9.2) | 0.982 |
| Marital statusb | 377 (23.9) | 110 (23.5) | 267 (24.0) | 0.846 |
| Educational attainment | ||||
| Less than h.s.c | 308 (19.5) | 63 (13.5) | 245 (22.0) | <0.001 |
| H.s. or equivalent | 1003 (63.5) | 308 (66.0) | 695 (62.5) | 0.193 |
| Trade or college | 149 (9.4) | 59 (12.6) | 90 (8.1) | 0.005 |
| University or more | 118 (7.5) | 37 (7.9) | 81 (7.3) | 0.660 |
| Drug use | ||||
| Daily heroin injectionb | 546 (34.6) | 162 (34.7) | 384 (34.5) | 0.952 |
| Daily cocaine injectionb | 542 (34.3) | 151 (32.3) | 391 (35.1) | 0.280 |
| Daily speedball injectionb | 194 (12.3) | 57 (12.2) | 137 (12.3) | 0.950 |
| Daily crack useb | 115 (7.3) | 24 (5.1) | 91 (8.2) | 0.034 |
| Health status | ||||
| HIV seropositive | 322 (20.4) | 47 (10.1) | 275 (24.7) | <0.001 |
| HCV seropositive | 1,195 (75.7) | 333 (71.3) | 862 (77.5) | 0.009 |
| Drug use-related behaviour | ||||
| Binge drug useb | 763 (48.3) | 233 (49.9) | 234 (21.0) | 0.418 |
| Shooting gallery useb | 465 (29.4) | 144 (30.8) | 321 (28.9) | 0.434 |
a
Median, Interquartile range;
b
Activities or situations in the previous 6 months;
c
h.s. = High School