Should sterile needle and syringe wastage be included within individual-level needle and syringe coverage measures?

Population-level measurement of needle and syringe (hereafter “syringe/s”) coverage amongst people who inject drugs (PWID), defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the total number of syringes distributed, divided by an estimate of the PWID population (WHO, 2012), has many limitations (O’Keefe, Scott et al., 2017; Sharma, Burrows,& Bluthenthal, 2007). For example, the measure (and other similar measures) rely on estimates of PWID population size, which are notoriously uncertain, and population-level measures cannot account for heterogeneity in drug use and service access between individuals (O ’Keefe, McCormack et al., 2017; Sharma et al., 2007).
Source: International Journal of Drug Policy - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Viewpoint Source Type: research