| Objective: Examine trends of injecting risk behaviors among PWIDs (people who inject drugs) in Ukraine during 2007-2013.;Design: We performed secondary analysis of data collected cross-sectionally within bio-behavioral surveillance among PWIDs in Ukraine in 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2013.;Methods: Using data from 14 cities, we assessed the overall trends of injecting risk behaviors to determine whether interview year was associated with each injecting risk behavior after adjusting for age, sex, region, marital status, education level, occupation, age of injection drug use initiation, experience of overdosing and self-reported HIV status.;Results: The overall test for trend indicated a statistically significant decrease over time for sharing needle/syringe during the last injection (p<.0001), for sharing needle/syringe at least once in the last 30 days (p<.0001), and for using a common container for drug preparation ((p<.0001). The prevalence of injecting drugs from pre-loaded syringes was high (61.0%) and did not change over the study period. After adjusting for all significant confounders, multivariable regression analyses demonstrated that, compared to baseline in 2007, the prevalence of sharing needle/syringe during the last injection was unchanged in 2008 (OR=1.06, 95% CI=0.92, 1.21), and declined in 2011 (OR=0.18, 95% CI=0.15-0.22) and in 2013 (OR=0.17, 95% CI=0.14-0.21). Sharing needle/syringe in the last 30 days significantly decreased when compared to 2007 (2008: OR=0.81, 95% CI=0.74-0.89; 2011: OR=0.43, 95% CI=0.38-0.47; 2013: OR=0.31, 95% CI=0.27-0.35. The prevalence of using common instruments for drug preparation also decreased compared to 2007 (2008: OR=0.88, 95% CI=0.85-0.91; 2011: OR=0.85, 95% CI=0.85-0.90; 2013: OR=0.74, 95% CI=0.71-0.76).;Conclusions: The observed reduction in the prevalence of injecting risk behavior over time is encouraging. Our study suggests that prevention programs implemented among PWIDs in Ukraine have been effective and should be expanded in the future. |
