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. 2024 Jan;119(1):180-199.
doi: 10.1111/add.16320. Epub 2023 Sep 24.

Drug consumption rooms are effective to reduce at-risk practices associated with HIV/HCV infections among people who inject drugs: Results from the COSINUS cohort study

Laurence Lalanne  1   2 , Perrine Roux  3 , Cécile Donadille  3 , Laelia Briand Madrid  3 , Isabelle Célerier  4 , Carole Chauvin  5 , Naomi Hamelin  1 , Charlotte Kervran  6   7   8 , Gwenaëlle Maradan  4 , Marc Auriacombe  6   7   8   9 , Marie Jauffret-Roustide  5   10   11 ; COSINUS Study Group
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Drug consumption rooms are effective to reduce at-risk practices associated with HIV/HCV infections among people who inject drugs: Results from the COSINUS cohort study

Laurence Lalanne et al. Addiction. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Aims: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in France on injection equipment-sharing, while the secondary aims focused upon their impact on access to hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing and opioid agonist treatment (OAT).

Design: The COhort to identify Structural and INdividual factors associated with drug USe (COSINUS cohort) was a 12-month longitudinal study of 665 people who inject drugs (PWID), conducted in Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris and Strasbourg. We used data from face-to-face interviews at enrolment and at 6-month and 12-month visits.

Setting and participants: The participants were recruited in harm reduction programmes in Bordeaux and Marseille and in DCRs in Strasbourg and Paris. Participants were aged more than 18 years, French-speaking and had injected substances the month before enrolment.

Measurements: We measured the impact of DCR exposure on injection equipment sharing, HCV testing and the use of medications for opioid use disorder, after adjustment for significant correlates. We used a two-step Heckman mixed-effects probit model, which allowed us to take into account the correlation of repeated measures and to control for potential bias due to non-randomization between the two groups (DCR-exposed versus DCR-unexposed participants).

Findings: The difference of declared injection equipment sharing between PWID exposed to DCRs versus non-exposed was 10% (1% for those exposed versus 11% for those non-exposed, marginal effect = -0.10; 95% confidence interval = -0.18, -0.03); there was no impact of DCRs on HCV testing and OAT.

Conclusions: In the French context, drug consumption rooms appear to have a positive impact on at-risk practices for infectious diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus.

Keywords: At-risk practices; HCV; HIV; cohort studies; drug consumption rooms; drug policy; evaluation; harm reduction.

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References

REFERENCES

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