The effect of injecting alone on the use of drug checking services among people who inject drugs.

OBJECTIVES

Drug checking services aim to provide people who use drugs with information on the content and purity of their substances as a harm reduction intervention. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between injecting alone and use of drug checking services in Vancouver, Canada.

METHODS

Data were derived from three prospective cohort studies of people who inject drugs (PWID). We conducted bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis to estimate the effect of injecting alone on use of drug checking services.

RESULTS

Between May 2018 and December 2018, a total of 793 people who inject drugs were included in the study: 579 (73.0%) reported injecting alone and 177 (22.3%) reported use of drug checking services. In a multivariable model adjusted for various confounders (including various sociodemographic variables, drug use patterns, and whether participants had suffered physical attacks/violence), injecting alone was negatively associated with use of drug checking services (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 0.65; 95% Confidence Interval: 0.44-0.97).

CONCLUSIONS

We observed a negative association between injecting drugs alone and use of drug checking services, which may be due in part to a number of exogenous factors that prevent people who inject alone from accessing drug checking services (e.g., stigma, location of services). As these individuals are at heightened risk of experiencing overdoses, there is a need to pursue other strategies to reach this group of people who use drugs.