Evaluation of a Brief Intervention to Prevent Initiation into Injecting

Abstract

Background: strategies to prevent initiation of non-injectors into injecting are rare. A brief intervention with this aim, offered to current injecting drug users (IDUs), has been evaluated. Methods: baseline behavioral and attitudinal data were collected using structured interviews with 86 IDUs. Participants were re-interviewed immediately after the intervention and at 3-month follow-up (n = 73). Results: it was feasible to deliver the intervention, which was acceptable to both drug users and drug workers. IDUs' disapproval of initiating non-injectors significantly increased after the intervention. Participants injected in front of fewer non-injectors in the subsequent 3 months (falling from 97 to 49). Requests for initiation fell from 36 to 15 and the number of people initiated dropped from 6 to 2. Conclusions: these results, the cheapness and ease With which such an intervention can be delivered, suggest that by incorporating such interventions into drug work it may be possible to reduce the number of people who begin injecting. Areas for further research are suggested.