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Quality of life of people who inject drugs: characteristics and comparisons with other population samples

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Abstract

Purpose

To assess the quality of life (QOL) of persons who inject drugs.

Methods

Some 483 current injecting drug users visiting a large NSP over a 2-week period in October 2009 were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. QOL was measured using the WHOQOL-BREF. Data were collected on age, gender, injecting patterns, current drug treatment status and hepatitis C status. Participant QOL profiles were compared to published domain scores for a range of other population groups.

Results

People who inject drugs (PWID) experience a very poor QOL irrespective of socio-demographic characteristics, injecting patterns, hepatitis C sero-status and drug treatment status. Sample participants (PWID) experience a QOL below that experienced by many population groups in the community affected by disabling chronic illnesses.

Conclusions

Injecting drug use is associated with a poor QOL. Some PWID may be self-medicating for chronic non-malignant pain, and it is likely that these people had a low QOL prior to the decision to inject. Despite this caveat, it remains likely that injecting drug use does little to enhance the QOL of the user.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pharmacy Australia Centre for Excellence (PACE), School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, 4102, Australia

    Jane A. Fischer & Alexandra M. Clavarino

  2. Centre for Drug and Alcohol Studies/Statewide Services, Queensland Health, 270 Roma Street, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

    Jane A. Fischer

  3. School of Population Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, 4006, Australia

    Sue Conrad & Jackob M. Najman

  4. Biala Harm Reduction Centre, Queensland Health, 270 Roma Street, Brisbane, 4000, Australia

    Sue Conrad

  5. Needle and Syringe Program, Management Unit, Queensland Health, Herston, 4006, Australia

    Robert Kemp

  6. School of Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 4067, Australia

    Jackob M. Najman

  7. National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Jane A. Fischer

Authors
  1. Jane A. Fischer
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  2. Sue Conrad
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  3. Alexandra M. Clavarino
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  4. Robert Kemp
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  5. Jackob M. Najman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jane A. Fischer.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Compared populations on WHOQOL-BREF mean domain scores
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Fischer, J.A., Conrad, S., Clavarino, A.M. et al. Quality of life of people who inject drugs: characteristics and comparisons with other population samples. Qual Life Res 22, 2113–2121 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-013-0350-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-013-0350-8

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