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Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers

BACKGROUND: Festival drug-related deaths are a growing public health concern. AIM: To examine drug use and related harm-reduction practices and attitudes towards utilisation of drug safety testing services. METHODS: Data collection took place over the 2019 festival season (June–October). The questio...

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Autores principales: Ivers, Jo-Hanna, Killeen, Nicki, Keenan, Eamon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34545479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02765-2
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author Ivers, Jo-Hanna
Killeen, Nicki
Keenan, Eamon
author_facet Ivers, Jo-Hanna
Killeen, Nicki
Keenan, Eamon
author_sort Ivers, Jo-Hanna
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Festival drug-related deaths are a growing public health concern. AIM: To examine drug use and related harm-reduction practices and attitudes towards utilisation of drug safety testing services. METHODS: Data collection took place over the 2019 festival season (June–October). The questionnaire was self-reported. Data was gathered via the online survey, which was promoted through online and social media platforms and outlets. Social media communication methods were used to reach the targeted population more effectively. RESULTS: A total of 1193 Irish festival attendees over the age of 18 completed an anonymous online survey. Alcohol, MDMA powder/crystals, ecstasy pills and cocaine were the highest reported drugs used by Irish festival attendees. The vast majority of participants reported polysubstance use (86.8%/n = 1036). Forty percent of participants (39.98%/n = 477) reported having had sex following the use of a drug at a festival; of these, 66% (n = 316) said that the sex was unprotected. Most participants (84.0%/n = 1003) engaged in some form of harm reduction when taking drugs at festivals. Overwhelmingly, participants reported a willingness to engage with drug-checking services. The vast majority (96.3%; n = 1149) and would use drug checking services more than three-quarters (75.1%/n = 897) reported that they would use an ‘amnesty bin’ for drugs if it were part of an alert system to notify if dangerous drugs are in circulation. A chi-square test of Independence was conducted to examine whether age and utilisation of drug safety testing service a festival were independent. Moreover, when all cases are taken together, the difference between testing modalities (onsite, offsite and amnesty bin) shows a significant difference p < 001 between those who would use onsite and offsite drug testing facilities. CONCLUSION: The evidence from this survey indicates that those young people who use drugs at festivals would be prepared to utilise drug checking services and amnesty bins should help inform the public health response to this important area.
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spelling pubmed-84521252021-09-21 Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers Ivers, Jo-Hanna Killeen, Nicki Keenan, Eamon Ir J Med Sci Original Article BACKGROUND: Festival drug-related deaths are a growing public health concern. AIM: To examine drug use and related harm-reduction practices and attitudes towards utilisation of drug safety testing services. METHODS: Data collection took place over the 2019 festival season (June–October). The questionnaire was self-reported. Data was gathered via the online survey, which was promoted through online and social media platforms and outlets. Social media communication methods were used to reach the targeted population more effectively. RESULTS: A total of 1193 Irish festival attendees over the age of 18 completed an anonymous online survey. Alcohol, MDMA powder/crystals, ecstasy pills and cocaine were the highest reported drugs used by Irish festival attendees. The vast majority of participants reported polysubstance use (86.8%/n = 1036). Forty percent of participants (39.98%/n = 477) reported having had sex following the use of a drug at a festival; of these, 66% (n = 316) said that the sex was unprotected. Most participants (84.0%/n = 1003) engaged in some form of harm reduction when taking drugs at festivals. Overwhelmingly, participants reported a willingness to engage with drug-checking services. The vast majority (96.3%; n = 1149) and would use drug checking services more than three-quarters (75.1%/n = 897) reported that they would use an ‘amnesty bin’ for drugs if it were part of an alert system to notify if dangerous drugs are in circulation. A chi-square test of Independence was conducted to examine whether age and utilisation of drug safety testing service a festival were independent. Moreover, when all cases are taken together, the difference between testing modalities (onsite, offsite and amnesty bin) shows a significant difference p < 001 between those who would use onsite and offsite drug testing facilities. CONCLUSION: The evidence from this survey indicates that those young people who use drugs at festivals would be prepared to utilise drug checking services and amnesty bins should help inform the public health response to this important area. Springer International Publishing 2021-09-20 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8452125/ /pubmed/34545479 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02765-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Article
Ivers, Jo-Hanna
Killeen, Nicki
Keenan, Eamon
Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers
title Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers
title_full Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers
title_fullStr Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers
title_full_unstemmed Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers
title_short Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers
title_sort drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an irish cohort of festival-goers
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8452125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34545479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02765-2
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