NCJ Number
172896
Journal
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: January-March 1998 Pages: 21-24
Date Published
1998
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article is a report on various methods of estimation of the number of injection drug users in the Boston standard metropolitan area in 1993.
Abstract
Because the sharing of needles is a means of transmission for HIV, an estimate of the prevalence of injection drug use is essential for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention programs. The data for this study came from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Abuse; the Massachusetts AIDS Surveillance Unit; the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN); the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates 1993; and the Massachusetts State Police Crime Reporting Unit. A combination of estimation techniques were used in this study to create a series of points in which to center the prevalence estimation; these included synthetic, capture-recapture, upper-bound, and lower-bound methods of estimation. The estimates in this study can be assessed with regard to the different time frames that are involved, noting that some estimates are useful only to establish upper or lower bounds. The estimate that best meshes with the findings of this report indicates that there were 13,500- 16,500 injection drug users in greater Boston and 45,000-60,000 injection drug users in Massachusetts in 1993. 10 references