Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38310293›Full record

SynthesisAddiction science & clinical practice2024

Impact of harm minimization interventions on reducing blood-borne infection transmission and some injecting behaviors among people who inject drugs: an overview and evidence gap mapping.

Fernanda S Tonin, Filipa Alves da Costa, Fernando Fernandez-Llimos

Open access · goldAbstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Addiction science & clinical practice, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
3.9field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Fernanda S ToninH&TRC - Health & Technology Research Center, ESTeSL - Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.ORCID 0000-0003-4262-8608
Filipa Alves da CostaResearch Institute for Medicines (iMED.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, Lisbon, Portugal. alvesdacosta.f@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0003-0562-2514
Fernando Fernandez-LlimosApplied Molecular Biosciences Unit, (UCIBIO-i4HB) Laboratory of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.ORCID 0000-0002-8529-9595
Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa · PTUniversidade do Porto · PTUniversity of Lisbon · PT

Funding

Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa UIDB/04585/2020
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThis study aimed to synthetize the evidence on the effectiveness of harm minimization interventions on reducing blood-borne infection transmission and injecting behaviors among people who inject drugs (PWID) through a comprehensive overview of systematic reviews and evidence gap mapping.

methodsA systematic review was conducted with searches in PubMed and Scopus to identify systematic reviews assessing the impact of interventions aimed at reducing the harms associated with injectable drug use. The overall characteristics of the studies were extracted and their methodological quality was assessed using AMSTAR-2. An evidence gap map was constructed, highlighting the most frequently reported outcomes by intervention (CRD42023387713).

resultsThirty-three systematic reviews were included. Of these, 14 (42.2%) assessed the impact of needle/syringe exchange programs (NSEP) and 11 (33.3%) examined opioid agonist therapy (OAT). These interventions are likely to be associated with reductions of HIV/HCV incidence (10-40% risk reduction for NSEP; 50-60% for OAT) and sharing injecting paraphernalia (50% for NSEP, 25-85% for OAT), particularly when combined (moderate evidence). Behavioral/educational interventions were assessed in 12 reviews (36.4%) with most authors in favor/partially in favor of the use of these approaches (moderate evidence). Take-home naloxone programs and supervised-injection facilities were each assessed in two studies (6.1%), which reported inconclusive results (limited/inconsistent evidence). Most authors reported high levels of heterogeneity and risk of bias. Other interventions and outcomes were inadequately reported. Most systematic reviews presented low or critically low quality.

conclusionThe evidence is sufficient to support the effectiveness of OAT, NSEP and their combination in reducing blood-borne infection transmission and certain injecting behaviors among PWID. However, evidence of other harm minimizations interventions in different settings and for some outcomes remain insufficient.

Indexed as

Drug UsersHIV InfectionsSubstance Abuse, IntravenousBlood-Borne InfectionsEvidence GapsHarm ReductionHumansSystematic Reviews as TopicBlood-borne infectionsEvidence gapsHarm reductionInjectable drug useSystematic reviews

Identifiers

PMID38310293
PMCPMC10838443
OpenAlexW4391521476

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.