Challenges Faced and Coping Strategies Adopted by Injecting Drug Users during COVID-19 Lockdown—A Qualitative Study.

Background: The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the lives of vulnerable population, including the injecting drug users (IDUs). The objective of the study was to document the coping mechanism adopted by IDUs and suggest measures to mitigate the adverse effects, if similar sit...

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Publicado en:Indian Journal of Community Medicine Vol. 48; no. 6; pp. 846 - 852
Autores principales: Vashisht, Shruti, Jha, Shreya, Kant, Shashi, Thakur, Nishakar, Rai, Sanjay
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Wolters Kluwer India Pvt Ltd Nov/Dec2023
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov/Dec2023
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        atl: Challenges Faced and Coping Strategies Adopted by Injecting Drug Users during COVID-19 Lockdown—A Qualitative Study.
      aug:
        au:
          Vashisht, Shruti
          Jha, Shreya
          Kant, Shashi
          Thakur, Nishakar
          Rai, Sanjay
        affil: Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
      sug:
        subj:
          COVID-19 Pandemic
          Stay-at-Home Orders
          Coping
          Persons Who Use Intravenous Drugs Psychosocial Factors
          Adverse Drug Event Prevention and Control
          Human
          Organizations, Nonprofit India
          Qualitative Studies
          India
          Interviews
          Focus Groups
          Grounded Theory
          Descriptive Statistics
          Harm Reduction
          Health Services Accessibility
      ab: Background: The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the lives of vulnerable population, including the injecting drug users (IDUs). The objective of the study was to document the coping mechanism adopted by IDUs and suggest measures to mitigate the adverse effects, if similar situation were to arise in future. Materials and Methods: A qualitative study was conducted at the Targeted Intervention Non-Government Organizations catering to IDUs in Delhi and Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Four focus group discussions among 41 IDUs and 7 key informant interviews of the NGO staff were conducted in the study. The Hindi recordings were coded and the data analysis was performed manually using grounded theory approach. Results: We found that the lockdown affected the lives of most of the IDUs and they found it difficult to access the harm reduction services. To cope with this, many IDUs started following alternate methods to support the drug habits. There was an increase in reuse of needles and syringes. Conclusion: The lockdown during COVID-19 and the resulting challenges negatively impacted the physical and mental health of the IDUs. We recommend that in any similar future scenario, travel pass may be issued to the IDUs and the TI-NGO personnel.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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