AEGiS-15IAC: [LbOrC16] RANDOMIZED COMMUNITY TRIAL TO REDUCE HIV RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG INJECTING DRUG USERS USING NEEDLE SOCIAL MARKETING STRATEGY IN CHINA

15th International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, Thailand — July 11-July 16, 2004

[LbOrC16] RANDOMIZED COMMUNITY TRIAL TO REDUCE HIV RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG INJECTING DRUG USERS USING NEEDLE SOCIAL MARKETING STRATEGY IN CHINA

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16;15:Abstract No. LbOrC16

Z Wu¹, P Lin², W Liu³, Z Ming⁴, W Luo¹, L Pang¹
¹China CDC, National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, Beijing, China; ²Guangdong CDC, Guangzhou, China; ³Guangxi CDC, Nanning, China; ⁴Family Health International China Office, Beijing, China

BACKGROUND: The HIV epidemic continues to spread rapidly among injecting drug users (IDUs) and remain the major mode of transmission in China. The objective of study is to assess effectiveness of needle social marketing strategy in reducing risky injecting behaviors among IDUs.

METHODS: Community randomized trial design was used. Two counties comparable in the number of drug users and the prevalence of needle sharing behaviors were selected from 5 candidate counties in Guangdong and Guangxi respectively. In each province, one county was randomly allocated in intervention and the other to control. Needle social marketing strategy (promoting social norm of safe injection, increasing supply of needles, and collection of needles) was used to reduce risk behaviors among IDUs in intervention group. Needle sharing behaviors were compared at baseline and 12 months after intervention between intervention and control groups to assess effectiveness of study.

RESULTS: 823 drug users were interviewed in the baseline survey and 854 in final evaluation survey. 69.5% drug users obtained needles from intervention program in Guangdong and 46.8% in Guangxi. Proportion of drug user reported needle sharing behavior in past 30 days changed from 62.8% to 33.1% (P<0.01) in intervention group, from 68.7% to 72.7% in control group in Guangdong; and from 74% to 37.5% (P<0.01) in intervention group and from 66.9% to 51.9% in control group in Guangxi. Among drug users who shared needles in past 3 months, the number of shared injection was reduced by 36% in intervention group but no in control group.

CONCLUSION: Needle social marketing strategy is demonstrated to be effective in reducing needle sharing risk behaviors among injecting drug users, and such program should be scale-up to tackle the increasing of HIV spreading among drug users in China.

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LbOrC16