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Feng, Cindy X.; DeBeck, Kora; Kerr, Thomas; Mathias, Steve; Montaner, Julio; Wood, Evan

Elsevier

Purpose: This longitudinal study examines the association between homelessness and injection drug use initiation among a cohort of street-involved youth in a setting of high-prevalence crystal methamphetamine use. Methods: We derived data from the At-Risk Youth Study, a prospective cohort of street-involved youth aged 14–26 years, recruited between September 2005 and November 2011. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to identify factors independently associated with time to injection initiation. Results: Among 422 street-youth who had never injected at baseline, we observed 77 injection initiation events during follow-up. Homelessness was independently associated with injection initiation in multivariate Cox regression (relative hazard, 1.80 [95% confidence interval, 1.13–2.87]) after adjusting for crystal methamphetamine use and other potential confounders. Conclusions: These findings highlight that homelessness is a key risk factor for injection initiation among street-involved youth. Supportive housing interventions for street youth may help prevent injection drug use initiation within this high-risk population.

Downtown-Eastside (Vancouver, B.C.)

Text

2017-11-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/63680

Feng, C., DeBeck, K., Kerr, T., Mathias, S., Montaner, J., & Wood, E. (2013). Homelessness independently predicts injection drug use initiation among street-involved youth in a Canadian setting. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(4), 499-501.

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