Injecting Practices: Gender Differences Among Drug Users in Colombian Populations

During the last two decades, the number of injection drugs users (IDUs) has expanded exponentially from developed countries into middle and lower-income countries. DIUs represent a central health concern due to the health risks associated with injecting practices including skin and soft tissue infections and damage, abscesses, overdosing, and the transmission of bloodborne infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C Virus, and Hepatitis B Virus. Latin America accounts for one of the largest IDUs populations in the world according to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) with Colombia reporting one of the fastest growing populations of DIUs in the area. Though a higher prevalence of injecting drugs has been widely reported in males compared to females, recent studies have documented that different injecting practices among males and females might expose them to different types of risk and associated health outcomes. In fact, some studies have provided evidence that the onset for using injecting drugs among females is strongly associated with receiving direct or indirect assistance by another person who in most cases are they sexual partners, and that females are more likely to use syringes previously used by their partners. The current study aimed to examine potential gender differences in injecting practices in DIUs during the first and last time they injected themselves. Data were collected using Respondent Driven-Sampling (RDS) across five cities in Colombia reporting the highest rates of DIUs yielding a total sample of N=1,081 participants ages 18-59 years old (mean=26yrs; 14% females).  Contingency Table Analysis, Chi Square and Fisher Exact tests were conducted. Results show that females were seven times more likely to be with their sexual partners than males (20.9% vs. 3.3%) during the first time they injected drugs. Similarly, females were five times more likely to be with their sexual partners during the last time they injected drugs. Females also reported being two times more likely to share dugs already mixed, cottons, and filters than males and three times more likely to share drug containers than males. No statistical gender differences were found for accessing and/or acquiring the drugs and sharing needles and syringes. Results will be discussed based on the psycho-social conditions of females in Colombia and other vulnerability factors such as individual values and romantic/sexual relationships for female DIUs as reported by previous scholars. Practical implications for prevention and intervention programs and for professionals working with male and females DIUs will be also discussed.