A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Psychosocial Interventions to Reduce Drug and Sexual Blood Borne Virus Risk Behaviours Among People Who Inject Drugs

Gilchrist, G.; Swan, D.; Widyaratna, K.; Marquez-Arrico, J.E.; Hughes, E.; Mdege, N.D.; Martyn-St James, M.; Tirado-Munoz, J.

Abstract

Opiate substitution treatment and needle exchanges have reduced blood borne virus (BBV) transmission among people who inject drugs (PWID). Psychosocial interventions could further prevent BBV. A systematic review and meta-analysis examined whether psychosocial interventions (e.g. CBT, skills training) compared to control interventions reduced BBV risk behaviours among PWID. 32 and 24 randomized control trials (2000-May 2015 in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane Collaboration and Clinical trials, with an update in MEDLINE to December 2016) were included in the review and meta-analysis respectively. Psychosocial interventions appear to reduce: sharing of needles/syringes compared to education/information (SMD −0.52; 95% CI −1.02 to −0.03; I2 = 10%; p = 0.04) or HIV testing/counselling (SMD −0.24; 95% CI −0.44 to −0.03; I2 = 0%; p = 0.02); sharing of other injecting paraphernalia (SMD −0.24; 95% CI −0.42 to −0.06; I2 = 0%; p < 0.01) and unprotected sex (SMD −0.44; 95% CI −0.86 to −0.01; I2 = 79%; p = 0.04) compared to interventions of a lesser time/intensity, however, moderate to high heterogeneity was reported. Such interventions could be included with other harm reduction approaches to prevent BBV transmission among PWID.

Citation

Gilchrist, G., Swan, D., Widyaratna, K., Marquez-Arrico, J., Hughes, E., Mdege, N., …Tirado-Munoz, J. (2017). A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Psychosocial Interventions to Reduce Drug and Sexual Blood Borne Virus Risk Behaviours Among People Who Inject Drugs. AIDS and behavior, 21, 1791-1811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1755-0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Deposit Date: Sep 9, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 9, 2021
• Journal: AIDS and Behavior
• Print ISSN: 1090-7165
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Pages: 1791-1811
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1755-0
• Keywords: People who inject drugs, Psychosocial intervention, Blood borne virus, Injecting risk behaviour, Sexual risk behaviour, Systematic review, Meta-analysis
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2797541