Primary health care project on HIV and depression

Commencing in April 2006 this three-year-project adopted a comprehensive and multi-method approach to investigate the prevalence, nature, clinical management and self-management of depression among men, particularly homosexually active men, attending HIV-caseload general practice clinics

Treatment decisions: what makes people decide to have treatment for hepatitis C?

Available literature indicates that clinical factors, social factors, personal values and knowledge are all important in determining whether or not people decide to have treatment for hepatitis C. Therefore this study sought to investigate a range of factors associated with making the decision to take up treatment. Additionally, to explore how Australian clients of Opiate Substitute Treatment (OST) centres made decisions about treatment, this study interviewed a sample of OST clients and health professionals in Sydney about their perceptions of a proposed model of delivery of treatment for hepatitis C through OST clinics

Factors associated with hepatitis C knowledge among a sample of treatment naive people who inject drugs

BackgroundAssessment and uptake of treatment for hepatitis C among people who inject drugs (PWID) is low and strategies to enhance hepatitis C care in this group are needed. Knowledge of hepatitis C and its treatment is one precursor to decisions about treatment.MethodsWe conducted a cross-section study designed to evaluate treatment considerations in participants with self-reported hepatitis C infection in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were recruited from needle and syringe programs, opiate substitution clinics, pharmacies that dispensed opiate substitution treatment and from the mailing list of a community-based hepatitis C organisation and completed a self-administered survey. Knowledge of hepatitis C was assessed by a 48-item scale addressing the natural history and treatment of hepatitis C. Factors associated with knowledge were assessed by ordinal regression.ResultsAmong the 997 participants recruited, 407 self-reported acquiring hepatitis C through injecting drug use and had never received hepatitis C treatment. Knowledge about hepatitis C was overall poor and the effects of the long term consequences of hepatitis C were over-estimated. Higher knowledge scores were associated with recruitment site, higher education levels and recent contact with a general practitioner. One-third of participants indicated that they did not intend to have treatment and one-fifth did not answer this question.ConclusionKnowledge is a precursor to informed decisions about hepatitis C treatment. These results indicate that efforts to support those less engaged with hepatitis C care (and specifically those on opiate substitution treatment) and those with lower literacy are required

The exposure and transition study: Exposure to injecting and hepatitis C among young people at risk

This study focuses on those who are at risk of transitioning to injecting. The cross-sectional survey provides information about the beliefs, experiences and understanding young people hold about hepatitis C, harm reduction services non-injecting and injecting drug use, as well as establish the impact of relationships with others who use and/or inject drugs on the drug-using experiences of vulnerable young people

Normalisation of recreational drug use among young people: evidence about accessibility, use and contact with other drug users

There is evidence to suggest that illicit drug use is increasingly a ‘normal’ part of the lives of many young people in Australia. The normalisation framework has been applied in limited contexts in Australia, and has not been assessed using longitudinal data. This paper uses cross-sectional periodic data collected at the Sydney Big Day Out music festival between 2006 and 2009 to examine several aspects of normalisation among festival patrons. Over the 4-year period high proportions of respondents reported that cannabis and ecstasy were ‘very easy’ or ‘fairly easy’ to obtain.In most years, over half the respondents reported ‘any illicit drug use’ in the past 12 months. A statistically significant relationship was found between recent illicit drug use and degree of contact with other people who use drugs (χ2 = 64.391, df = 4, p = 0.001). Such results suggest that certain aspects of drug use are normalised among festival patrons and that these are particularly concentrated among certain groups of young people. These groups could to be targeted when delivering drug education and prevention activities

Drug use, hepatitis C and exposure to injecting among young people in Queensland: The Big Day Out Survey 2009

The Big Day Out survey is a cross-sectional survey which surveyed people who attended the Big Day Out music festival at the Gold Coast, Queensland, in 2008 and 2009. The survey gains insight into drug use amongst young people and those who have been exposed to injecting

Human rights and universal access for men who have sex with men and people who inject drugs: a critical reflection on 2010 UNGASS narrative country progress reports

All UN member states have endorsed a commitment to protect human rights in the global fight against HIV and to ensure universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support. To assess progress towards fulfilling this commitment, countries submit reports to UNAIDS biennially, known as UNGASS reports. Our quantitative analyses show that core indicators relating to most-at-risk populations, particularly men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who inject drugs (PWID) are limited or absent from many UNGASS reports, particularly those submitted by countries in developing regions. We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of the narrative part of the 2010 UNGASS country progress reports, an important yet under-explored part of the reporting process, to consider how signatory countries in developing regions address the issue of MSM and PWID in a written form. Our analysis identified a repertoire of narrative approaches to MSM and PWID which revealed fault lines between countries’ endorsement of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and programmatic responses to MSM and PWID. Our findings raise questions about the relationship between “universal” human rights and “local” cultures, and about the UNGASS reporting process itself. Through critical engagement with these questions, our article aims to contribute to international dialogues on how to better recognise and respond to shortcomings in the global commitment to human rights and universal access for people vulnerable to HIV

HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia: annual report of trends in behaviour 2011

This report reviews behavioural data relevant to the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections (STIs) in Australia. It also examines behavioural data relevant to the social aspects of treatment and care of those who have been infected, including those who are living with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)

Men and women living heterosexually with HIV: The Straightpoz study, Volume 2

The Straightpoz study is a qualitative longitudal cohort study of HIV positive heterosexuals and their negative partners in New South Wales, the first study of its kind in Australia. This report explores findings from the second phase of the study which focused on health treatments, health services and sexual practice. These findings aim to provide understanding of the complex issues facing people who live heterosexually with HIV and how social and cultural contexts shape those issues

Understanding late HIV diagnosis among people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

This study aimed to investigate and understand reasons for late HIV diagnosis in New South Wales with particular focus on people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in the Sydney metropolitan area. The data from this study enables the development of culturally appropriate information campaigns and resources to encourage testing and prevent late HIV diagnosis particularly among people from CALD backgrounds