The Damage Done: A Study of Injection Drug Use, Injection Related Abscesses and Needle Exchange Regulation

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of a needle exchange policy change on community health. Data were collected from a needle exchange program in Eureka, California, for clients who participated in the program between the weeks (n = 112) of January 1, 2002, and February 28, 2004. Analysis was done using an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), indicating that greater utilization of the needle exchange program, in terms of needles exchanged and number of visits, is related to fewer numbers of abscesses treated. Additionally, self-report data collected from former intravenous drug users (n = 62) demonstrated that more needles exchanged were related to fewer occurrences of abscesses. The limitations of this research are discussed.

Keywords:

• abscesses
• injection drug use
• substance abuse
• needle exchange
• harm reduction
• public health

Acknowledgments

Portions of this article were presented at the Western Psychological Association's Annual Conferences, 2004, Phoenix, AZ.

Notes

1. ARIMA allows for tests of correlations between variables that remove the lingering effects of the preceding week's score as these effects can inflate correlations.