Valente T W, Foreman R K, Junge B, Vlahov D
Department of Population Dynamics, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Public Health Rep. 1998 Jun;113 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):90-6.
Our first objective was to develop an index of satellite exchange and then determine whether satellite exchangers (SEs) differed demographically or behaviorally from other injecting drug users (IDUs). Our second objective was to determine the degree that SEs contributed to needle exchange program (NEP) effectiveness.
We collected data from approximately 5000 Baltimore Needle Exchange Program (BNEP) participants on the number of syringes acquired and returned over the two-year period February 1995 to February 1997. We then conducted one-way ANOVAs and logistic regressions to determine if SEs were different from other IDUs.
We classified 9.35% of the IDUs and SEs and showed that SEs reported levels of drug use and risk behavior similar to other BNEP participants. Although SEs represented less than 10% of all BNEP clients, they accounted for more than 64% of all needles distributed by the BNEP. We showed that SEs accessed more wide-ranging drug use networks than non-SE IDUs and thus can act as potential bridges for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention materials and messages to larger numbers of drug injectors.
SEs can be expressly targeted with specific prevention messages and encouraged to be "ambassadors" for HIV prevention messages. Efforts to curtail the activities of SEs may detract from the effectiveness of NEPs.
我们的首要目标是制定一个卫星交换指数，然后确定卫星交换者（SEs）在人口统计学或行为方面是否与其他注射吸毒者（IDUs）存在差异。我们的第二个目标是确定SEs对针头交换计划（NEP）有效性的贡献程度。
我们收集了大约5000名巴尔的摩针头交换计划（BNEP）参与者在1995年2月至1997年2月这两年期间获取和归还的注射器数量数据。然后我们进行了单因素方差分析和逻辑回归，以确定SEs是否与其他IDUs不同。
我们对9.35%的IDUs和SEs进行了分类，结果显示SEs报告的吸毒水平和风险行为与其他BNEP参与者相似。尽管SEs占所有BNEP客户的比例不到10%，但他们占BNEP分发的所有针头的比例超过64%。我们表明，与非SE IDUs相比，SEs接入的吸毒网络范围更广，因此可以成为向更多吸毒者传播人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）预防材料和信息的潜在桥梁。
可以向SEs明确传达特定的预防信息，并鼓励他们成为HIV预防信息的“大使”。限制SEs活动的努力可能会降低针头交换计划的有效性。
