Racial/ethnic disparities in injection drug use in large US metropolitan areas.
OBJECTIVE
Because blacks and Latinos bear a disproportionate burden of injection-related health problems compared with whites, we sought to describe black/white and Latino/white disparities in injecting drugs in 94 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in 1998.


METHODS
Using US Census data and three databases documenting injectors' use of different healthcare services (drug treatment, HIV counseling and testing, and AIDS diagnoses), we calculated database-specific black/white and Latino/white disparities in injecting in each MSA and created an index of black/white and Latino/white disparities by averaging data across the three databases.


RESULTS
The median black/white injecting disparity in the MSAs ranged from 1.4 to 3.7 across the three databases; corresponding median Latino/white injecting disparities ranged from 1.0 to 1.1. Median black/white and Latino/white index disparity values were 2.6 and 1.0, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Although whites were the majority of injectors in most MSAs, database-specific and index black/white disparity scores indicate that blacks were more likely to inject than whites. While database-specific and index disparity scores indicate that Latinos and whites had similar injecting rates, they also revealed considerable variation in disparities across MSAs. Future research should investigate these disparities' causes, including racial/ethnic inequality and discrimination, and study their contributions to the disproportionate burden of injection-related health problems borne by blacks and Latinos.
Cooper
Hannah
H
Medical and Health Research Association of New York City, Inc., NY, USA. cooper@ndri.org
Friedman
Samuel R
SR
Tempalski
Barbara
B
Friedman
Risa
R
Keem
Marie
M
D000328:Adult; D044383:Black People; D016208:Databases, Factual; D015528:HIV Seroprevalence; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American