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A COVID-19 Survey among People Who Use Drugs in Norway

International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022-06, Vol.19 (12), p.7002 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess ;2022 by the authors. 2022 ;ISSN: 1660-4601 ;ISSN: 1661-7827 ;EISSN: 1660-4601 ;DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19127002 ;PMID: 35742252

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  • Title:
    A COVID-19 Survey among People Who Use Drugs in Norway
  • Author: Welle-Strand, Gabrielle K. ; Gjersing, Linn ; Olsen, Ida K. ; Clausen, Thomas
  • Subjects: Attitudes ; Cannabis ; Cities ; Compliance ; Coronaviruses ; COVID-19 ; COVID-19 diagnostic tests ; COVID-19 vaccines ; Drug abuse ; Drugs ; Employees ; Immunization ; Infections ; Interviews ; Low income groups ; Masks ; Narcotics ; Opioids ; Pandemics ; Population ; Public health ; Questionnaires ; Sanitizers ; Social distancing ; Stimulants ; Tranquilizers ; Vaccination
  • Is Part Of: International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022-06, Vol.19 (12), p.7002
  • Description: Background: to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, adherence to COVID-19 recommendations and vaccination against COVID-19 have been important. Among people who use drugs (PWUD), little is known regarding compliance towards COVID-19 recommendations, COVID-19 testing, or attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. We aimed to examine these issues in a sample of PWUD. Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted between January and March 2021. Through users’ organizations and different low-threshold services for substance users, we recruited former drug users and professionals to include participants and perform the interviews. Participants completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Any person above 16 years of age who used substances were recruited. Results: 477 Norwegian PWUD participated in the study. The mean age was 43.8 (SD 12.8) years and 77% were males. Thirty-four percent had injected drugs the past four weeks. Alcohol (41%) and cannabis (41%) were the most common drugs used the past four weeks, followed by tranquilizers (37%), central stimulants (35%) and opioids (30%). The majority (90%) had washed their hands frequently, used alcohol sanitizer during the past two weeks, had used face masks, kept one-meter distance to other people and stayed at home if feeling unwell. Fifty-four percent had been COVID-19 tested. More than half the sample (58%) had positive attitudes to COVID-19 vaccination, while 26% were fairly or very unlikely to accept vaccination. Those older (OR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.94; 0.98) and using face masks (OR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.30; 0.79) were more likely to have positive attitudes towards vaccination, while those reporting low life-satisfaction (OR = 3.86, 95% CI 1.43; 10.40), using opioids (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.43; 6.18) or almost never staying at home when feeling unwell (OR = 2.76, 95% 1.39; 5.45) expressed more negative attitudes towards vaccination. Conclusion: there was generally a high compliance towards COVID-19 recommendations, but one quarter of the sample was sceptical towards COVID-19 vaccination. This indicates a need for targeted and tailored information and well-designed vaccination roll-out programs to reach all PWUD.
  • Publisher: Basel: MDPI AG
  • Language: English;Norwegian
  • Identifier: ISSN: 1660-4601
    ISSN: 1661-7827
    EISSN: 1660-4601
    DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19127002
    PMID: 35742252
  • Source: Geneva Foundation Free Medical Journals at publisher websites
    AUTh Library subscriptions: ProQuest Central
    NORA Norwegian Open Research Archives
    PubMed Central
    Coronavirus Research Database

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