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Thomas Kerr

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Kerr.

78 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Safer injection facility use and syringe sharing in injection drug users.

Safer injection facilities provide medical supervision for illicit drug injections. We aimed to examine factors associated with syringe sharing in a community-recruited cohort of illicit injection drug users in a setting where such a facility had recently opened. Between Dec 1, 2003, and June 1, 2004, of 431 active injection drug users 49 (11.4%, 95% CI 8.5-14.3) reported syringe sharing in the past 6 months. In logistic regression analyses, use of the facility was independently associated with reduced syringe sharing (adjusted odds ratio 0.30, 0.11-0.82, p=0.02) after adjustment for relevant sociodemographic and drug-use characteristics. These findings could help inform discussions about the merits of such facilities.

Blood-Borne Pathogens↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Recent incarceration independently associated with syringe sharing by injection drug users.

OBJECTIVES: Few prospective studies are available on the relationship between incarceration and HIV risk among injection drug users (IDUs). The authors evaluated self-reported rates of syringe sharing and incarceration among a cohort of IDUs. METHODS: This study analyzed syringe lending by HIV-infected IDUs and syringe borrowing by HIV-negative IDUs among participants enrolled in the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS). Since serial measures for each individual were available, variables potentially associated with each outcome (syringe lending and borrowing) were evaluated using generalized estimating equations for binary outcomes. RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 1,475 IDUs who were enrolled into the VIDUS cohort from May 1996 through May 2002. At baseline, 1,123 (76%) reported a history of incarceration since they first began injecting drugs. Of these individuals, 351 (31%) reported at baseline that they had injected drugs while incarcerated. Among 318 baseline HIV-infected IDUs, having been incarcerated in the six months prior to each interview remained independently associated with syringe lending during the same period (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=1.33; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06, 1.69; p=0.015). Similarly, among the 1,157 baseline HIV-negative IDUs, having been incarcerated in the six months prior to each interview remained independently associated with reporting syringe borrowing during the same period (adjusted OR=1.26; 95% CI 1.12, 1.44; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Incarceration was independently associated with risky needle sharing for HIV-infected and HIV-negative IDUs. This evidence of HIV risk behavior should reinforce public health concerns about the high rates of incarceration among IDUs.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Requiring help injecting as a risk factor for HIV infection in the Vancouver epidemic: implications for HIV prevention.

BACKGROUND: Requiring help injecting was recently associated with syringe sharing, and later HIV-1 and HCV seroconversion among injection drug users (IDU) in Vancouver. This risk factor remains poorly understood. The present study investigates this risk factor among Vancouver IDUs. METHODS: We evaluated factors associated with requiring help injecting among participants enrolled in the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study (VIDUS) using univariate and logistic regression analyses. VIDUS participants who were followed-up during the period December 2000 to December 2001 were eligible for the present analyses. We also evaluated self-reported reasons for requiring help injecting. RESULTS: Overall, 661 active injection drug users were interviewed during the study period. Among this population, 151 (22.8%) had required help injecting during the last six months, whereas 510 (77.2%) indicated that they had not. Variables that were independently associated with requiring help injecting included borrowing a used syringe (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.18), frequent cocaine injection (AOR = 1.57), and female gender (AOR = 2.29). Among males, the most common reasons for requiring help injecting were: having no viable veins (77.1%), and anxiousness or being drug sick (42.9%). Among females, the most common reasons reported were: having no viable veins (71.6%), jugular injection or 'jugging' (45.7%), and being anxious or drug sick (27.2%). Almost twice as many females (13.6% vs 7.1%) reported not knowing how to inject as their reason for requiring help injecting. CONCLUSION: Although current public health approaches, such as needle exchange, are unable to address the concerns associated with requiring help injecting, available evidence suggests that safer injecting facilities have the potential to substantially mitigate this risk behaviour.

British Columbia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Rationale to evaluate medically supervised safer smoking facilities for non-injection illicit drug users.

Many cities are experiencing ongoing infectious disease epidemics and substantial community harm as a result of illicit drug use. In an effort to reduce these public order and public health concerns, consideration has been given to the opening in Vancouver of a safer smoking facility (SSF). The present review was conducted to examine if there is a rationale to support the evaluation of a SSF in the Canadian context. Available evidence suggests that conventional drug control strategies are insufficient to address the health and community harms of non-injection drug use, and that the public order benefits of supervised injection facilities may be relevant to SSFs. In addition, there is persuasive evidence to suggest there is potential for blood-borne disease transmission through the sharing of smoking paraphernalia, and the potential for SSFs to address this concern is a pressing public health question. Also relevant to this topic are interventions to prevent transition into injection drug use, and SSFs may also be evaluated as a potential strategy to address this concern.

Amphetamine-Related Disorders↗