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Injection and Non-Injection Drug Use Among Adults with Diagnosed HIV in the United States, 2015–2018

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Abstract

Understanding behavioral characteristics and health outcomes of people with HIV (PWH) who inject drugs and PWH who use drugs, but do not inject, can help inform public health interventions and improve HIV clinical outcomes. However, recent, nationally representative estimates are lacking. We used 2015–2018 Medical Monitoring Project data to examine health outcome differences among adults with diagnosed HIV who injected drugs or who only used non-injection drugs in the past year. Data were obtained from participant interviews and medical record abstraction. We reported weighted percentages and prevalence ratios with predicted marginal means to assess differences between groups (P < 0.05). PWH who injected drugs were more likely to engage in high-risk sex; experience depression and anxiety symptoms, homelessness, and incarceration; and have lower levels of care retention, antiretroviral therapy adherence, and viral suppression. Tailored, comprehensive interventions are critical for improving outcomes among PWH who use drugs, particularly among those who inject drugs.

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Data Availability

MMP data are not available to be shared publicly because they are collected under a federal Assurance of Confidentiality that restricts access. Access to data may be granted under limited circumstances after security and confidentiality requirements are met.

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Code may be available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all MMP participants, local MMP staff, and members of the Clinical Outcomes Team at CDC for their contributions to this work.

Funding

The Medical Monitoring Project was funded through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding opportunity announcement, CDC-RFA-PS15-1503.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of HIV Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd, US8-4, Atlanta, GA, 30329-4027, USA

    Kathleen Wu, Yunfeng Tie, Sharoda Dasgupta, Linda Beer & Ruthanne Marcus

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  1. Kathleen Wu
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  2. Yunfeng Tie
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  3. Sharoda Dasgupta
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All authors contributed equally to the writing of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kathleen Wu.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical Approval

Not applicable; Medical Monitoring Project data collection is part of routine public health surveillance and thus determined to be nonresearch. Participating jurisdictions obtained local institutional review board approval to collect data when required and this is noted in the methods section.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to the interview.

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Wu, K., Tie, Y., Dasgupta, S. et al. Injection and Non-Injection Drug Use Among Adults with Diagnosed HIV in the United States, 2015–2018. AIDS Behav 26, 1026–1038 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03457-9

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