ReviewHarm reduction journal2020
Women and barriers to harm reduction services: a literature review and initial findings from a qualitative study in Barcelona, Spain.
Review in Harm reduction journal, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contraceptive and condom use among women from key populations in Myanmar.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- "I Know So Many Women That Have the Same Story as Mine": Exploring How the Increase of Benzodiazepines in the Unregulated Drug Supply Shapes Experiences of Gender-Based Violence Among Women and Gender Minorities in Vancouver, BC.Contemporary drug problems · 2026Article
- Family-centered interventions for people with substance use disorders in low-and middle-income country settings: a scoping review.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- How survivors of exploitation who use drugs navigate systems of care: an analysis of survivor insights using the intersectional risk environment.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Heroin assessment in Spanish population-based studies: a scoping review.Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2026Article
- Gender and power dynamics in three types of injection partnerships among young women in rural Appalachia.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Access to health and harm reduction services during drug decriminalization in British Columbia, Canada: a mixed-method study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Lessons from COVID-19: Perspectives of senior managers and decision-makers in substance use services in Wales.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
- Gender differences in social networks of women and men who inject drugs in Kenya.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Let the girls know, "you can come here": qualitative experiences with harm reduction and health services among women who use drugs in Chicago.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic, behavioral, and geospatial factors associated with syringe services program use in San Francisco, California.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- "He will still know where I live": harm reduction for women who use drugs and experience Gender-Based violence.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Avoiding the cost of complacency: barriers and solutions to ending the HIV epidemic in Europe.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Relational trust in outreach with women experiencing street-involvement in British Columbia, Canada: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Counting the vulnerable: estimating the population size and assessing the HIV care continuum among women who inject drugs in Southern Mozambique.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Negotiating Care and Control: Women's Experiences of Two Harm Reduction Services in Copenhagen.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- "We're Not Gonna Aid You in Shooting Up": Stigma's Relationship to Harm Reduction in People Who Inject Drugs.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- How to eliminate hepatitis C between people who inject drugs in community services and prisons in Catalonia.Harm reduction journal · 2025Review
- Willingness to use a drug checking service for cannabis and cannabis-based products: results from an online survey of people who regularly use cannabis in France.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Drug use and sexual behaviors among women who inject drugs and use a syringe services program; Miami, Florida.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere are an estimated 3.2 million women who inject drugs worldwide, constituting 20% of all people who inject drugs. The limited data that are available suggest that women who inject drugs are at greater risk of HIV and viral hepatitis acquisition than men who inject drugs. This increased vulnerability is a product of a range of environmental, social and individual factors affecting women, which also affect their ability to engage in health promoting services such as harm reduction.
methodsThe researchers undertook a narrative literature review examining access to harm reduction services for women who use drugs in Europe and conducted semi-structured focus groups with women who use drugs and harm reduction and prison health workers in Barcelona, Spain.
resultsWomen who use drugs face multiple barriers to accessing harm reduction services. These include stigma, both in society in general and from health and harm reduction workers in prisons and in the community; gender-based violence and a lack of services that are equipped to address the interaction between drug use and experiences of violence; criminalisation in the form of legal barriers to access, arrest and harassment from law enforcement, and incarceration; and a lack of services focused on the specific needs of women, notably sexual and reproductive health services and childcare. In Barcelona, participants reported experiencing all these barriers, and that their engagement with the Metzineres harm reduction centre had to some extent mitigated them. However, women continued to experience structural barriers to harm reduction service access.
conclusionsWomen and gender non-conforming people who use drugs face unique barriers to accessing harm reduction services. While services such as Metzineres can be life changing and life affirming for its members, it is incumbent on states to act to address the structural barriers to health faced by women who use drugs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.