Risks of injection drug use in a Swedish context: Harms and prevention of harms according to injection drug users

Thursday, 24 November, 2022 - 09:00 to 19:30

Abstract

Background: Despite the introduction of several harm reduction measures in Sweden, injection drug use (IDU) remains associated with major medical, social and drug-related risks and harms that can be limited by prevention measures. Such harms hit this group of drug users particularly hard, but the risks also vary in an interplay between individual (e.g., tolerance, co-morbidity) and institutional (e.g., policy) factors. This research project, developed in collaboration with the Stockholm Needle Exchange Program (NEP), sheds light on how risks and harms are understood and can be prevented from different actors’ perspectives and in response to central aspects of the practical work. The aim is to increase our knowledge on how people who inject drugs (PWID), treatment staff and other societal actors reason about whether and how risks and harms can be prevented, and how this relates to the interaction between individuals, social situations (e.g., social network, injection) and institutions (e.g., drugs policy, public debate).

Methods: By collecting and analysing qualitative data (circa 25 interviews with PWID, focus groups with NEP staff, media and policy material) building upon quantitative register-data from the NEP, the project will provide new knowledge about how risks, harms, poor health and death can be prevented based on users’ (micro level), staff’s (meso level) and societal perspectives (macro level).

Results: This project started on February 1st, 2022. The first findings from register analyses and interviews with PWID will be presented at Lisbon Addictions. The register study explores risk behaviours in different sub-groups. It focuses on those defined as high-risk PWID and analyses NEP visit patterns, coverage of distributed needles/syringes, and changes in risky behaviours over time. The semi-structured interviews will explore how understandings of risk are reflected in PWID’s own risk-taking, its consequences and how this relates to the NEP and other available interventions. Conclusion: TBA

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