Incarceration experiences in a cohort of active injection drug users.

BACKGROUND

Incarceration has been associated with a number of health-related harms among injection drug users (IDU). However, little is known about the prevalence and correlates of incarceration among community-based samples of IDU.

METHODS

We examined the prevalence and correlates of recent incarceration among IDU in the Scientific Evaluation of Supervised Injecting (SEOSI) cohort examined between 1 July 2004 and 30 June 2006 using generalised estimating equations (GEE).

RESULTS

A total of 902 individuals were included in the analysis, of whom 255 (28.72%) were female and 536 (59.42%) reported a history of incarceration. In a multivariate GEE model, recent incarceration was associated positively and independently with a number of high-risk drug using behaviours, including syringe sharing.

CONCLUSIONS

An alarmingly high proportion of active IDU reported recent incarceration and injecting while incarcerated. Recent incarceration was associated independently with syringe sharing. These findings add further evidence to repeated demands for an expansion of appropriate harm-reduction measures in Canada's prisons.