Survey on first sharing injection equipment incidence among drug users in Urumqi city

  Objective   To estimate the incidence of sharing inject ion equipment among drug users in Urumqi, Xinjiang.

  Methods   During September to October 2004, a survey was conducted to collect demographic information including ethnicity, maritalstatus, education, and employment status, initial drug use, initial injection drug use and first time of sharing injection equipment with other drug users among drug users.

  Results   Atotal of 509 drug users were interviewed and 59.5%(303/509)shared injection equipment in the past.The average incidence of sharing inject ion equipment was 818 per 100 person-years(95% CI 7.819~9.810)from initial drug use to first sharing injection equipment, year of initial drug use(Hr= 1.654, 95% CI 1.284~2.132)was independently associated with first sharing of injection equipment in the multivariate Coxproportional hazard regression model.The av erage incidence of sharing injection equipment was 18.4 per 100 personyears(95% CI 16.279~20.426)from initial injecting drug to first sharing injection equipment, according to the multivariate Coxproportional hazard regression model, gender(Hr=1.448, 95% CI 1.129~1.858)was independently associated with first sharing injection equipment.

  Conclusion   The average incidence of sharing injection equipment among drug users was high, which could contribute to the rapid transmission of HIVamong drug users in Urumqi.