Table 1.
Characteristics by injection drug network size among 14,378 persons recruited across 15 cities in India
| 0–1 (37.0%) | 2–5 (44.4%) | 6–10 (11.6%) | >10 (7.1%) | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||
| Age | 30 (25 – 37) | 29 (24 – 35) | 29 (24 – 35) | 29 (25 – 35) | 0.0019 |
| Sex | <.0001 | ||||
| Male | 4911 (92.5) | 6052 (94.9) | 1591 (95.6) | 988 (97.2) | |
| Female | 401 (7.6) | 324 (5.1) | 74 (4.4) | 29 (2.9) | |
|
| |||||
| Education | <.0001 | ||||
| Primary school or less | 1706 (32.1) | 2363 (37.0) | 587 (35.2) | 343 (33.7) | |
| Secondary school | 2536 (47.8) | 2789 (43.7) | 756 (45.4) | 505 (49.6) | |
| High school and above | 1069 (20.1) | 1229 (19.3) | 324 (19.4) | 170 (16.7) | |
|
| |||||
| Married | <.0001 | ||||
| Yes | 2403 (45.2) | 2504 (39.2) | 618 (37.1) | 319 (31.3) | |
| No | 2909 (54.8) | 3877 (60.8) | 1048 (62.9) | 699 (68.7) | |
|
| |||||
| Alcohol use* | <.0001 | ||||
| No alcohol use | 2356 (44.4) | 2562 (40.2) | 667 (40.0) | 404 (39.7) | |
| Low/moderate use | 961 (18.1) | 1197 (18.8) | 273 (16.4) | 151 (14.8) | |
| Harmful/hazardous | 875 (16.5) | 1205 (18.9) | 307 (18.4) | 194 (19.1) | |
| Dependence | 1120 (21.1) | 1416 (22.2) | 419 (25.2) | 269 (26.4) | |
|
| |||||
| Number of years injecting | <.0001 | ||||
| 0 – 3 | 1154 (21.9) | 1521 (23.9) | 331 (19.9) | 153 (15.1) | |
| 4 – 6 | 1387 (26.3) | 1878 (29.5) | 472 (28.4) | 268 (26.4) | |
| 7 – 12 | 1345 (25.5) | 1589 (25.0) | 471 (28.4) | 323 (31.8) | |
| >12 | 1396 (26.4) | 1378 (21.7) | 387 (23.3) | 271 (26.7) | |
|
| |||||
| Drug injected in past 6 months | |||||
| Heroin | 1701 (32.0) | 2527 (39.6) | 742 (44.5) | 547 (53.7) | <.0001 |
| Buprenorphine | 1463 (27.5) | 2106 (33.0) | 558 (33.5) | 394 (38.7) | 0.0055 |
| Painkillers | 1135 (21.4) | 2268 (35.5) | 573 (34.4) | 284 (27.9) | 0.0001 |
|
| |||||
| Shared needle/syringe at last injection | <.0001 | ||||
| Yes | 1148 (21.6) | 1778 (27.9) | 522 (31.3) | 328 (32.2) | |
| No | 4164 (78.4) | 4603 (72.1) | 1145 (68.7) | 690 (67.8) | |
|
| |||||
| Syringe exchange program (SEP) utilization | <.0001 | ||||
| Never used | 3119 (59.2) | 3819 (60.1) | 808 (48.7) | 442 (43.6) | |
| More than 30 days ago | 1050 (19.9) | 745 (11.7) | 279 (16.9) | 152 (15.0) | |
| Within past 30 days | 1103 (20.9) | 1788 (28.2) | 572 (34.5) | 421 (41.5) | |
|
| |||||
| Opioid substitution therapy (OST) utilization | <.0001 | ||||
| Never used | 3946 (74.9) | 5018 (79.1) | 1270 (76.6) | 715 (70.6) | |
| More than 30 days ago | 597 (11.3) | 706 (11.1) | 238 (14.4) | 194 (19.2) | |
| Within past 30 days | 722 (13.7) | 619 (9.8) | 150 (9.1) | 104 (10.3) | |
|
| |||||
| Injection location in past 6 months**§ | <.0001 | ||||
| Home | 1788 (33.7) | 2584 (40.5) | 723 (43.4) | 491 (48.2) | |
| Friend’s house | 840 (15.8) | 2195 (34.4) | 612 (36.7) | 357 (35.1) | |
| Dealer’s house | 647 (12.2) | 1400 (21.9) | 483 (29.0) | 386 (37.9) | |
| Public park | 1618 (30.5) | 2853 (44.7) | 772 (46.3) | 474 (46.6) | |
| Public toilet | 696 (13.1) | 1741 (27.3) | 451 (27.1) | 365 (35.9) | |
| Shooting gallery | 928 (17.5) | 1728 (27.1) | 468 (28.1) | 309 (30.4) | |
| Graveyard/cemetery | 719 (13.5) | 1598 (25.0) | 529 (31.7) | 350 (34.4) | |
|
| |||||
| Number of PWID seen in past 30 days | <.0001 | ||||
| 1–5 | 1842 (34.7) | 2392 (37.5) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | |
| 6–10 | 1111 (20.9) | 1621 (25.4) | 607 (36.4) | 0 (0.0) | |
| 11–20 | 1285 (24.2) | 1301 (20.4) | 469 (28.1) | 309 (30.4) | |
| >20 | 1074 (20.2) | 1067 (16.7) | 591 (35.5) | 709 (69.6) | |
|
| |||||
| Number of persons respondent passed needle/syringe to in past 30 days | <.0001 | ||||
| 0 | 5009 (94.4) | 5192 (81.6) | 1291 (77.5) | 765 (75.3) | |
| 1–3 | 263 (5.0) | 887 (13.9) | 209 (12.6) | 149 (14.7) | |
| >3 | 35 (0.7) | 287 (4.5) | 165 (9.9) | 102 (10.0) | |
|
| |||||
| Number of persons that used needle/syringe before respondent in past 30 days | <.0001 | ||||
| 0 | 5050 (95.2) | 5323 (83.8) | 1330 (80.6) | 798 (78.9) | |
| 1–3 | 235 (4.4) | 812 (12.8) | 200 (12.1) | 142 (14.1) | |
| >3 | 19 (0.4) | 221 (3.5) | 121 (7.3) | 71 (7.0) | |
|
| |||||
| Frequency injected with multiple other persons | |||||
| Never | 3478 (65.7) | 1546 (24.3) | 325 (19.5) | 174 (17.2) | <.0001 |
| Less than half/half of the time | 1120 (21.1) | 2807 (44.1) | 712 (42.8) | 446 (44.0) | |
| More than half of the time | 699 (13.2) | 2014 (31.6) | 627 (37.7) | 393 (38.8) | |
|
| |||||
| Social support | <.0001 | ||||
| Low (<10) | 1220 (23.0) | 1601 (25.1) | 397 (23.8) | 249 (24.5) | |
| Medium (10–19) | 2504 (47.2) | 3422 (53.6) | 882 (52.9) | 521 (51.2) | |
| High (20–25) | 1585 (29.9) | 1357 (21.3) | 387 (23.2) | 248 (24.4) | |
|
| |||||
| Suppressed viral load (among HIV positives only, N=2915) | 399 (34.5) | 271 (24.1) | 80 (23.3) | 49 (18.4) | <.0001 |
*
classified according to the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) standard cutoffs
**
multiple responses allowed
§
only among those who had injected in the past 6 months