HIV risk behaviour among participants of syringe exchange programmes in central/eastern Europe and Russia
Section snippets
Methods
The data were collected during the second half of 1999. All of these programmes provided basic syringe exchange in terms of information about HIV/AIDS and exchanging new sterile needles and syringes for used-potentially HIV contaminated-needles and syringes. The programmes operated primarily on a one-for-one exchange of needles and syringes, though at times some gave out less than one syringe for each syringe taken in. The programmes were selected in consultation between the researchers and the
Results
Table 1a, Table 1b present selected socio-demographic characteristics and drug use information of the respondents who completed the risk behaviour interview from the ten sites. Table 2a, Table 2b present additional demographic and drug use data from the supplementary interviews from respondents whose supplementary interview could be matched to a risk behaviour interview. A majority of participants were male at all ten programmes, though the size of the majority ranged from 64% in Poltava to 92%
Variation across the ten programmes
Table 1a, Table 1b, Table 2a, Table 2b show considerable variations in the demographic characteristics and drug use histories of participants in the ten programmes. The distinction between participants who are very young, powder heroin injectors (sometimes called ‘New Russian’ injectors in Russia) versus somewhat older, homemade opiate preparation injectors was useful for classifying seven of the ten programmes. The variations in demographic characteristics and drug use histories are a strong
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the participants in the research and the helpful cooperation of the staff of the programmes. The study was funded through a contract from the Open Society Institute to Beth Israel Medical Center. NIDA grants R01DA12342 to Beth Israel Medical Center and P30 DA11041 to National Development and Research Institutes supported additional data analyses.
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