Drug use and risk among regular injecting drug users in Australia: does age make a difference?
OBJECTIVE
To examine age-related differences in drug use and risk among regular injecting drug users (IDU) in Australia.


METHODS
Cross-sectional data from the 2006 Illicit Drug Reporting System were examined for age-related differences in demographic characteristics, drug use history and current use patterns and self-reported risk behaviours.


RESULTS
IDU under 25 years of age were more likely to have initiated injecting at a younger age, to identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, and to be injecting daily or more often than their older counterparts. They reported more frequent heroin use in the preceding 6 months, and were more likely to report morphine as the first drug injected than were IDU aged 35 years or over. Younger IDU were also more likely to report providing used needles to others, engaging in recent property crime and drug dealing and arrest in the last year.


CONCLUSIONS
Younger IDU reported significantly different drug use patterns and higher rates of risk behaviours than their older counterparts. Treatment services need to ensure that harm and demand reduction services deliver messages to new cohorts of IDU, particularly given that their drug use patterns may be different to those of older users.
Degenhardt
Louisa
L
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of NSW, New South Wales, Australia.
Kinner
Stuart A
SA
Roxburgh
Amanda
A
Black
Emma
E
Bruno
Raimondo
R
Fetherston
James
J
Fry
Craig L
CL
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001315:Australia; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D017743:Equipment Reuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D040261:Harm Reduction; D003932:Heroin / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D009020:Morphine / Q000009:adverse effects; D012309:Risk-Taking; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology
D013287:Illicit Drugs; D003932:Heroin; D009020:Morphine