Racial and ethnic changes in heroin injection in the United States: Implications for the HIV/AIDS epidemic

摘要: Abstract Background Racial/ethnic differences in drug injection prevalence contribute to disparities HIV infection rates the US between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. We examine trends demographic characteristics of heroin users (IDUs) that may impact future rates. Methods Descriptive analyses were conducted (1) national Treatment Episode Data Set for 1992–2004 2002–2004 baseline data from (2) CIDUS-III, a 5-city study recruited 3285 young IDUs, (3) NIHU-HIT, Chicago 647 noninjecting users. Results Between 1992 2004, was injected most often reported at admission treatment. During this period, proportion admissions reporting declined 44% among but only 14% Whites. The peak age IDUs treatment increased 10 years while declining over CIDUS-III enrolled about 8 times more White (64%) than Black (8%) despite recruiting two-thirds sample cities where constituted 27–64% population. comprised 53% 2% Chicago's IDUs. Among current users, Whites likely have ever ( X d.f. = 1 2 17.1 , p  Conclusions are resisting exhibit opposite tendency. New research should investigate reasons trend its on epidemic service needs.