Characterizing people who inject drugs with no history of opioid agonist therapy uptake in Iran: Results from a national bio-behavioural surveillance survey in 2020.

ABSTRACT: Injection drug use is the primary driver of the human immunodeficiency virus HIV epidemic in Iran. We characterized people who inject drugs (PWID) living in Iran who had never received opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and examined barriers to OAT uptake. We recruited 2,684 PWID with a history of drug injection in the previous 12 months using a respondent-driven sampling approach from 11 geographically dispersed cities in Iran. The primary outcome was no lifetime uptake history of OAT medications. The lifetime prevalence of no history of OAT uptake among PWID was 31.3%, with significant heterogeneities across different cities. In the multivariable analysis, younger age, high school education or above, no prior incarceration history, and shorter length of injecting career was significantly and p

SUBMITTER: Mehrabi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11530214 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature