1College of Public Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
2Drug Dependence Research Center, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Drug Dependence (WHOCC), Thailand
*Correspondence: Duangta Pawa College of Public Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, Drug Dependence (WHOCC), Thailand, E-mail: duangtap@gmail.com
Online published on 4 January, 2017.
New trends among People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) in Thailand and limited data mean that there is a need to better understand socio demographic profiles and drug use patterns. This study aims to present socio demographic profile and drug injecting behaviours of PWID in Bangkok, Thailand in order to better inform the development of the interventions for PWID in the future.
The individual interviews with 125 PWID from the community were conducted. Ninety-one PWID who reported injecting drugs in the previous six months and no kind of drug treatment were eligible in this study. Descriptive analysis was performed using SPSS software package.
Most participants (86.8%) were male. Mean age of participants was 41 years old (SD 8.46). PWID in Bangkok had been injecting drugs for an average of 20 years (SD 8.50). PWID reported injection of midazolam (72.5%) and heroin (48.4%) at arm (68.1%) followed by groin (45.1%). There were 82.4% of study participants reported having received some form of drug treatment but they discontinued.
The findings of this study suggested that PWID in Bangkok has a long history of drug injection and high injecting frequency. They practice unsafe injecting behaviors such as inject drugs in combination and injection at the groin. They discontinued drug treatment while still injecting drugs. Efforts should be made to further reach out PWID and provide tailored intervention to reduce harm associated with drug injection.
Drug injection, harm reduction, drug use
