The Rural Injectors Project
NDARC Staff
Kate Dolan, Carolyn Day, Elizabeth Conroy, Julia Lowe and Jo Kimber
Aims
- to examine patterns of drug use and drug treatment utilization among rural and outer metropolitan injecting drug users (IDU)
- to determine the prevalence of blood-borne virus risk behaviours among rural and outer metropolitan IDU
- to measure HIV and hepatitis C prevalence among rural and metropolitan IDU via self report
- to examine quality of life and other psychosocial aspects of IDU living in rural and metropolitan areas
- to examine patterns of migration from areas with low prevalence of blood-borne viruses to high prevalence areas (rural-metropolitan)
Design and Method
This was a cross-sectional study of injecting drug users in rural and outer metropolitan areas of NSW. Two hundred and sixty IDU were interviewed: 164 rural and 96 metropolitan. Age, gender, education and employment were similar for rural and metropolitan participants. Both samples reported use of a range of drugs, but rural participants were less likely than metropolitan participants to report daily heroin use (2% vs. 10%), but more likely to report having injected morphine (50% vs. 21%) in the last six months. Similar proportions reported using a needle/syringe after another person. Rural participants were less likely to report use of NSPs (36% vs. 80%), and reported a significantly longer period of time between BBVI testing. Fewer than half the sample reported having experienced a barrier to treatment, but there was no difference between the two groups.
Benefits
Output
Full details of the findings of this project can be found in the following report:
Day, C., Conroy, E., Lowe, J., Kimber, J., Page, K., & Dolan, K. (2005). Drug use and harms among rural and metropolitan injecting drug users: Findings from the Rural Injectors Project. Technical Report No. 234. Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.
Day, C., Conroy, E., Lowe, J., Page, J., & Dolan, K. (2006). Patterns of drug use and associated harms among rural injecting drug users: Comparisons with metropolitan injecting drug users. Australian Journal of Rural Health 14, 120-125.Funding
AIDS and Infectious Diseases NSW Health and Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing