Exposure to injecting drug use and hepatitis C knowledge among an online sample of young people

Abstract

Aim: Young people who are socially engaged with people who inject drugs are at higher risk of transitioning to injecting drug use. We aimed to examine rates of exposure to injecting among young people in an online survey, and whether exposure to injecting was related to hepatitis C (HCV) knowledge. Methods: A cross-sectional, online survey was completed by 827 young people (aged 16–26 years) in New South Wales, Australia. Exposure to injecting in the preceding 12 months was measured by asking participants whether close friends and romantic/sexual partners had injected, and whether somebody had offered them an injection. HCV knowledge was measured using items adapted from a survey of Australian secondary school students. Findings: Eleven percent of participants reported recent exposure to injecting. Participants exposed to injecting were significantly more likely than other participants to report use of injectable drugs. Some aspects of HCV transmission were poorly understood, and exposure to injecting was not significantly associated with higher HCV knowledge. Conclusions: While online methods were only moderately successful in recruiting people exposed to injecting, higher rates of use of injectable drugs and HCV knowledge deficits in this group suggests that they are an important target for HCV education and prevention.

• Hepatitis C
• injection drug use
• knowledge
• vulnerable groups
• youth

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the NSW Ministry of Health.

We would like to thank the study participants for generously offering their time, and Dr Philippe Adam for his assistance in managing the online web platform and recruiting participants. We would also like to thank the Study Advisory Committee for their expertise and advice on the study design, implementation and interpretation of findings (Dr John Howard, Tim Duck, Cherie Power, Dr Chris Bourne, and Carolyn Murray).

Declaration of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.