Nutritional status of people who inject drugs in Coastal Kenya: a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Despite documentation on injection drug use (IDU) in Kenya, the nutritional status of people who inject drugs (PWIDs) is under-explored. Elsewhere studies report under-nutrition among PWIDs which is attributed to food insecurity; competing priorities between drugs and food supply; chaotic lifestyle; reduced food intake; substance use induced malnutrition due to inflammation and comorbidities.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study that sought to assess the nutritional status of PWIDs in Coastal Kenya. We recruited 752 participants of whom 371(49%) were on IDUs and 75 non-IDUs and 306 non-drug users using respondent driven sampling, traditional snowball, makeshift outreach and purposive sampling methods.

Results

More than one half of the participants (56

SUBMITTER: Budambula V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10996164 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature