Health literacy and changes in pattern of drug use among participants at the Stockholm Needle Exchange Program during the COVID-19 pandemic

Table 1 Service utilization at the Stockholm needle exchange program January–October, 2019/2020

	2019		2020		p value
	(n)	(n/client)	(n)	(n/client)	p value
NEP visits
Clients	1,634	–	1,719	–
Number of visits	18,936	11.6	19,369	11.3	0.44
Number of visits at other NEP	692	0.42	500	0.29	< 0.001
Distribution of needles/syringes
Distributed syringes	395,656	242	601,969	350	< 0.0001
Distributed needles	452,919	277	718,051	418	< 0.0001
HIV/hepatitis
HIV tests	2280	1.4	2145	1.2	< 0.05
HCV tests	600	0.4	585	0.3	0.26
HBV tests	672	0.4	546	0.3	0.0001
New HIV cases	3	0.002	2	0.001	0.68
New HCV cases	84	0.05	78	0.05	0.47
New HBV cases	1	0.0006	1	0.0006	1.0
Initiated HCV treatments	78	0.12^†	54	0.08^†	< 0.05
Take home naloxone (THN)
New clients in THN program	226	0.16*	248	0.18*	0.35
Active clients in THN program	475	0.29	585	0.34	< 0.01
Naloxone doses distributed	1,686	3.5**	2,246	3.8**	0.26
Reported overdose reversals	329	0.69**	344	0.59**	0.10
Overdose with ambulance called	160	0.49°	166	0.48°	0.94
Overdose with rescue breathing	93	0.28°	123	0.36°	< 0.05
Mortality
Deceased	41	0.03	19	0.01	< 0.01