TABLE 2.
Survey results regarding Hurricane Sandy and the week following the storm.
| Item | %1 (n) |
|---|---|
| Housing Problems2 | |
| Forced from home | 6.7 (20) |
| Lost electrical power | 23.9 (62) |
| Lost heat | 23.2 (60) |
| Lost running water | 4.6 (12) |
| Medication | |
| Methadone or Buprenorphine dosage adequacy3 | |
| Obtained sufficient take-home doses from formal sources | 30.1 (46) |
| Forced to use informal sources in addition to take-home doses to avoid withdrawal | 22.9 (35) |
| Used informal sources to avoid withdrawal | 23.5 (36) |
| Experienced withdrawal | 8.5 (13) |
| Missed HIV medication doses due to problems related to the storm4 | 42.6 (23) |
| Drug Acquisition, Preparation and Use | |
| Experienced more difficulty than usual obtaining drugs | 51.0 (152) |
| Dealers raised drug prices | 27.9 (83) |
| Unable to obtain drugs to avoid withdrawal one or more days | 59.5 (176) |
| Frequency of drug injection | |
| Increased | 4.1 (12) |
| Stayed the same | 56.1 (165) |
| Decreased | 39.8 (117) |
| Unable to obtain sufficient sterile syringes for injecting | 17.6 (52) |
| Shared syringes | 19.0 (56) |
| Receptively shared syringes due to problems related to the storm | 9.2 (27) |
| Distributively shared syringes due to problems related to the storm | 16.0 (47) |
| “Backloaded/Piggybacked5” | 12.3 (36) |
| Shared drug preparation equipment due to problems related to the storm | 17.0 (50) |
| Injected with different people due to problems related to the storm | 14.4 (42) |
| Helping Behavior | |
| Rescued others | 19.7 (59) |
| Volunteered with aid groups | 21.1 (63) |
| Helped others obtain food or other necessities | 59.0 (177) |
| Helped relatives | 25.7 (77) |
| Helped friends | 44.0 (132) |
| Helped neighbors | 18.7 (56) |
| Helped strangers | 15.3 (46) |
| Helped other drug users avoid withdrawal | 49.0 (147) |
| Helped other drug users obtain sterile syringes | 33.3 (100) |
1
, Effective sample sizes (n) for category percentages vary due to non-response for some items, and percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding;
2
, among those domiciled at the outset of Hurricane Sandy;
3
, among those taking prescribed methadone or buprenorphine;
4
, among HIV-infected participants;
5
, used an individual syringe to withdraw drugs from a common syringe used for preparing drugs for more than one person.