Risk factors and determinants of HIV and Hepatitis C prevalence and incidence among a cohort of young injection drug users
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objectives: The primary objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence, incidence and risk factors for HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) infection among young (aged 13 - 24 years) injection drug users (IDUs) participating in the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS). Methods: This study was a nested sub-study within the VIDUS project. The VIDUS is an open cohort consisting of over 1,400 Vancouver area IDUs. Participants must be aged 13 years and older, have injected illicit drugs at least once in the previous month and reside i n the greater Vancouver area. Enrolment into the study began in 1996, and the majority of participants were enrolled between 1996 and 1997. Since 1997, on average, 100 new study participants have been enrolled each year. At baseline and semi-annually thereafter, subjects undergo an interviewer-administered questionnaire and provide a venous blood sample for HIV and HCV antibody testing. Questionnaires are administered in English, Spanish, Mandarin, French and Cantonese and elicit information on participants' risk factors and living conditions in the previous six months. Nonparametric and multivariate regression methods were used when analyses were conducted on cross-sectional data. Longitudinal data were analyzed using person-time techniques. Results: Baseline HCV prevalence was 46% (107) and was associated with being Aboriginal, incarceration in the previous 6 months, survival sex, <100 lifetime partners, residence in the Downtown Eastside, and at least daily heroin, cocaine, or speedball injection. HCV seroconversion occurred among 37 of the youth, an incidence rate of 37.2 per person-years; the median age was 20 years and the median number of years injecting was 1.1. HCV seroconversion was independently associated with having an IDU partner and daily cocaine injection. Baseline HIV prevalence among the youth was 10% (23) and was independently associated with being female, daily cocaine injection, older age, and a greater number of years injecting. HIV seroconversion occurred among 16 youth, an incidence rate of 4.4 per person years; the median age was 22 and median number of years injecting was 3.0. HIV incidence was associated with being Aboriginal, at least daily crack or cocaine use, and <100 lifetime sexual partners. Conclusion: This sub-study was the first attempt to examine demographic characteristics and risk factors among young IDUs in a city coping with epidemic proportions of HCV and HIV among the IDU population. Young IDUs are of particular importance in terms of prevention of blood-borne infections. Relative to older IDUs, younger IDUs have lower prevalence of HIV and HCV but alarmingly high incidence rates, particularly among female and Aboriginal youth. The window of opportunity to act is short, and preventive actions are urgently required. This study has provided important clues where resources need to be targeted.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".