New Academy Research Shows that Children of Sexual Abuse More Likely to Use Injection Drugs than their Peers

NEW YORK CITY, March 29??? Victims of childhood sexual abuse are likely to start using injection drugs at a younger age than their injecting peers, according to new research by The New York Academy of Medicine in the April issue of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Public Health.

The Academy-led study of 2,143 injection drug users (IDUs) found that victims of childhood sexual abuse started using injection drugs at an average age of 18 years. IDUs who had not been sexually abused as children started injecting drugs at an average age of 20, according to lead author Danielle C. Ompad, PhD, an investigator in the Academy Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies.

The findings emphasize the need to incorporate substance abuse prevention programs into victimization services for children and adolescents, Ompad said. Childhood sexual abuse is nearly twice as common among young IDUs in this study (14.3 percent) than among the general population (8 percent), this study reveals.

???Childhood trauma resulting from forced sexual encounters is an important correlate of later substance abuse,??? Ompad said. ???Since risk for HIV and other blood-borne infections rises substantially among injection drug users, it is critical to develop appropriate prevention and treatment intervention strategies for these abused children and adolescents.???

For the study, trained street outreach workers conducted interviews with 18- to 30-year-old IDUs in areas of high drug traffic in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. (All participants also received HIV testing and counseling). Participants were 63 percent male, 20 percent African-American, 53 percent white, 19 percent Hispanic, and 8 percent ???Other or mixed.???

Nearly 20 percent (422) of the participating IDUs reported that they had been sexually abused. Of them, 72 percent said they were abused before they began injecting drugs, suggesting that abuse is correlated with later drug-use. Those who were abused before ever using injection drugs were victimized at a mean age of 11.8 years old, researchers found.

Women were significantly more likely than men to have experienced sexual abuse (41.4 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively). Yet men were younger than women at the time of their first sexual abuse (12.6 years old and 14.6 years old, respectively).

Academy co-authors of the study, entitled "Childhood Sexual Abuse and Age at Initiation of Injection Drug Use," are Crystal Fuller, PhD, David Vlahov, PhD, and Yingfeng Wu. The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The New York Academy of Medicine, one of the country???s premier urban health policy and intervention centers, focuses on enhancing the health of people living in cities through research, education, advocacy, and prevention. Visit us online.

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Posted on March 29, 2005

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