Trial reportThe International journal on drug policy2021
Association of skin infections with sharing of injection drug preparation equipment among people who inject drugs.
Trial report in The International journal on drug policy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Economic and epidemiological burden of medical complications of unregulated drug use among people who inject drugs in Québec.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
- The Effect of Opioid Agonist Treatment on Injection-Related Sequelae: A Population-Based Observational Study.Drug safety · 2025Observational
- Bacterial and fungal infections in persons who inject drugs.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- Prevalence and correlates of multiple injections per injection episode among people who inject drugs in rural U.S. communities.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- Infectious Complications of Substance Use: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Hospitalized Veterans.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Cutaneous Abscess Prevalence and Risk Factors Among People Who Inject Drugs in Denver, Colorado.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- A hand-washing community-based educational intervention to reduce abscess incidence among people who inject drugs: a cluster randomised controlled clinical trial protocol (the HAWA study protocol).BMC public health · 2024Article
- Community Support for Harm Reduction and Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder.Journal of community health · 2024Article
- Economic evaluation of the effect of needle and syringe programs on skin, soft tissue, and vascular infections in people who inject drugs: a microsimulation modelling approach.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Drug preparation, injection-related infections, and harm reduction practices among a national sample of individuals entering treatment for opioid use disorder.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Article
- Trends and correlates of abscess history among people who inject drugs in Massachusetts: A mixed methods exploration of experiences amidst a rapidly evolving drug supply.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2023Article
- High levels of interest in access to free safer smoking equipment to reduce injection frequency among people who inject drugs in Seattle, Washington.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2023Article
- Six Moments of Infection Prevention in Injection Drug Use: An Educational Toolkit for Clinicians.Open forum infectious diseases · 2022Article
- A composite vignette: xylazine, infectious complications and the importance of community-based drug checking services.Therapeutic advances in infectious diseaseArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSharing needles and injection drug preparation equipment (IDPE) among people who inject drugs (PWID) are well-established risk factors for viral transmission. Shared needles and IDPE may serve as bacterial niduses for skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI). Given the rising rates of SSTI in PWID, we investigated the association of needle and IDPE sharing on incidence of SSTI in a cohort of PWID.
methodsInpatient PWID (N = 252) were recruited to a randomized controlled trial of an intervention aimed at reducing infections. The primary outcome was self-reported incidence of SSTI one-year post-hospitalization. In this secondary analysis, we assessed two variables: 1) sharing of IDPE alone, 2) sharing needles with or without IDPE, and compared these groups separately to persons who reported no sharing of needles or IDPE via a mixed-effects negative binomial regression model to estimate the effect of baseline sharing behavior on SSTI during follow-up via incidence rate ratios (IRR).
resultsParticipant characteristics: 38 years [mean], 58% male, 60% White, 90% primarily injected opioids, 1.58 (± 2.35) mean SSTI in the year prior to baseline. In terms of sharing behavior, 29% didn't share needles or IDPE, 13% shared IDPE only, and 58% shared needles with or without IDPE three months prior to baseline. After adjusting for co-variables, PWID who shared IDPE alone had a 2.2 fold higher IRR of SSTI (95%CI 1.27; 3.85, p = 0.005) and PWID who shared needles with or without IDPE had a 3.31 fold higher IRR of SSTI (95%CI 2.04; 5.37, p < 0.001), compared to those who did not share any equipment. The number of SSTI at baseline was associated with an IRR of 1.20 of SSTI during follow-up (95%CI 1.09; 1.32, p < 0.001).
conclusionsIn this cohort of hospitalized PWID, we found a significant association between baseline sharing of IDPE alone and of sharing of needles with or without IDPE with one-year incidence of SSTI.
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