Monday, November 16, 2009

Women Who Shoot Meth

From the Journal of Urban Health, May 2006 - Methamphetamine (MA) use is on the rise in the United States, with many cities reporting increases of 100% or more in MA-related Emergency Department (ED) mentions. Women are keeping pace with this trend: in 2003, 40% of ED mentions and 45% of MA-related treatment admissions were female.
This paper examines female methamphetamine injectors in San Francisco, CA, from 2003–2005. We assessed sexual and injection related risk behaviors, comparing female MA injectors to female injectors of other drugs. We also examined whether MA use was independently associated with specific sexual and injection risk behaviors. We found that female MA injectors were significantly more likely than non-MA injectors to report unprotected anal intercourse, multiple sexual partners, receptive syringe sharing and sharing of syringes with more than one person in the past six months.
  • To read the complete paper "Sexual and Injection Risk among Women who Inject Methamphetamine in San Francisco" in the Journal of Urban Health, click here.

  • The State of California Department of Public Health's Office of AIDS created a very informative fact sheet about sex and IDUs titled "Injection Drug Users and Their Sex/Needle-Sharing Partners." Click here to be linked to this information.

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