HIV AND DRUG RELATED STIGMA AND ITS ASSOCIATED HIGH-RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG PEOPLE WHO INJECTION DRUG USERS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

Background and Aim : In spite of the fact that there is sufficient evidence of the impact of HIV-related stigma on the people living with HIV, there has been limited number of study on how drug-related stigma might influence who inject drugs. This meta-analysis aimed to determined HIV and drug-related stigma and its associated high-risk behaviors among PWIDs. Methods : We searched PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Cochrane electronic databases independently in March 2019. After reviewing for duplication, full-text of selected articles were assessed for eligibility using certain Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcomes (PICO) criteria. We used fixed and random-effects meta-analysis models to estimate the pooled prevalence, pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals.Results : After a detailed assessment, a total of 14 studies containing 13689 patients met the eligibility criteria. Among the potential risk factors, employment status, depression and sharing paraphernalia had a significant relationship with HIV and drug stigma among PWIDs respectively (OR = 0.78, 95%CI = 0.62–0.98), (OR=1.84, 95%CI=1.45-2.33) and (OR=2.20, 95%CI=1.84-1.63).Conclusion : The substance-related stigma is associated with several concurrent effects. Such stigma may be considered in substance use prevention strategies. Perceived stigma is correlated with numerous negative consequences in other stigmatized populations like people suffering from HIV/AIDS. According to the obtained data, such findings could be generalized to injection drug users. This is because individuals with internalized stigma experienced stronger dependence, reduced comfort in seeking help from NSPs and reported higher rates of depression

کلیدواژه ها:

HIV ، Drug Related Stigma ، Depression ، Paraphernalia