The Norwegian injection mark study.
By examining persons arrested in Oslo during a certain period, we will try to obtain a better picture of intravenous drug abuse in Oslo. A pilot project was organized for 3 months during the autumn of 1987. In addition to having their arms examined, the arrestees were asked some questions about their abuse and HIV-testing. The paper presents some data from the pilot period: 35% of the arrestees had marks from intravenous drug abuse (almost 2/3 of the females and slightly less than 1/3 of the males); 78% of them were men, 22% were women; the majority were in the age range 21-35 years; 53% stated that they injected opiates, 35% that they injected stimulants and 12% that they injected both types. Nearly 80% stated that they had been HIV-tested. A larger proportion of users of opiates (88%) stated that they had been tested than users of stimulants (66%). The prevalence of HIV-seropositive cases among the arrested intravenous abusers was 13.8%. In the paper we also discuss methodological aspects of the study.
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection / Q000379:methods*; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000453:epidemiology*