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Table 1 Baseline characteristics of 1070 people who use drugs, stratified by injecting alone, Vancouver, Canada, 2016–2018

From: Injecting drugs alone during an overdose crisis in Vancouver, Canada

Characteristic

Total N (%)

(n = 1070)

Injecting alone (%)

p value

Yes

(n = 931)

No

(n = 139)

Age (median, IQR)

46 (36–54)

46 (37–54)

45 (35–53)

0.151d

Male sex (vs. female)

649 (60.7)

580 (62.3)

69 (49.6)

0.005

Indigenous ancestry (yes vs. no)

422 (39.4)

358 (38.5)

64 (46)

0.113

LGBT(yes vs. no)

184 (17.2)

149 (16)

35 (25.2)

0.011

Stable relationship (yes vs. no)

365 (34.1)

284 (31)

81 (58.3)

 < 0.001

Employmenta (yes vs. no)

256 (23.9)

217 (23.3)

39 (28.1)

0.241

Homelessness (yes vs. no)

257 (24)

225 (24.2)

32 (23)

0.915

DTES residencea (yes vs. no)

735 (68.7)

645 (69.3)

90 (64.8)

0.282

Recent incarcerationa (yes vs. no)

72 (6.7)

67 (7.2)

5 (3.6)

0.145

Sex worka (yes vs. no)

155 (14.5)

133 (14.3)

22 (15.8)

0.605

Recent violencea (yes vs. no)

182 (17)

158 (17)

24 (17.3)

0.904

Daily heroin usea (yes vs. no)

381 (35.6)

330 (35.5)

51 (36.7)

0.776

Daily fentanyl usea (yes vs. no)

25 (2.3)

23 (2.5)

2 (1.4)

0.761

Daily cocaine usea (yes vs. no)

69 (6.5)

60 (6.4)

9 (6.5)

1

Daily crack cocaine usea (yes vs. no)

113 (10.6)

98 (10.5)

15 (10.8)

0.883

Daily meth usea (yes vs. no)

213 (19.9)

188 (20.2)

25 (18)

0.648

Binge drug usea (yes vs. no)

490 (45.8)

437 (46.9)

53 (38.1)

0.055

Binge alcohol usea (yes vs. no)

189 (17.7)

166 (17.8)

23 (16.6)

0.812

Drug dealinga (yes vs. no)

272 (25.4)

237 (25.5)

35 (25.2)

1

Weekly OPS/SCS usea (yes vs. no)

253 (23.6)

220 (23.6)

33 (23.7)

1

Non-fatal overdosea (yes vs. no)

205 (19.2)

186 (20)

19 (13.7)

0.083

Depressionb (> = 22 at Baseline vs. < 22)

646 (60.4)

572 (61.4)

74 (53.2)

0.02

PTSDc (≥ 31 vs. < 31)

303 (28.3)

279 (30)

24 (17.3)

0.013

  1. All drug use variables refer to non-injection and injection use
  2. DTES Downtown Eastside, IQR interquartile range
  3. aBehaviours/events in the past 6 months
  4. bMeasured using the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) – >  = 22 at Baseline
  5. cMeasured using the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5)-cut-point score of ≥ 31
  6. dWilcoxon’s rank-sum test