TY - JOUR
T1 - The relationship between performance on the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS) and hepatitis C infection among active injection drug users in Baltimore, Maryland
AU - Severtson, Stevan Geoffrey
AU - Mitchell, Mary M.
AU - Hubert, Alicia
AU - Latimer, William
N1 - Funding Information:
Results of this study were initially presented at the National Institute of Drug Dependence Research Training Institute in Bethesda, MD. This research was funded by a grant awarded to William Latimer from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA-R01 DA14498) and by the Drug Dependence Epidemiology Training Grant (NIDA T32 DA007292) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, William Latimer, Director, and the Interdisciplinary Alcohol Research Training Program (NIAAA T32 AA007453), Marie Cornelius, Director. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions to this research staff that are and have worked at the Neurocognitive and Behavioral Research Center as well as students and fellows from the Drug Dependence Epidemiology Training Grant at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Funding Information:
This study utilized baseline data from the NEURO-HIV Epidemiologic Study, a longitudinal epidemiological investigation funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study was designed to evaluate neuropsychological and social-behavioral risk factors of contracting HIV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C among injection and non-injection drug users. Participants were recruited using a variety of community-based outreach strategies and received a monetary incentive ($45) for participation. The project was approved and monitored by the Institutional Review Board at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. More detailed descriptions of the dataset and methods are available other publications, see e.g., (17).
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Background: Hepatitis C represents a significant public health problem, particularly among injection drug users. Other than injection drug practices, little is understood about individual level characteristics that may place some injection drug users at particularly high risk. Objectives: The current study sought to examine two associations among active, regular heroin injection drug users. The first was to determine whether there was an association between two scales from the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS: a neuropsychological measure used to estimate cognitive impairment/intellectual functioning) and self-reported preexisting conditions independent of years of drug use. The second was to examine whether performance on the scales was associated with hepatitis C infection. Methods: Data from 260 HIV negative injection drug users from the Baltimore metropolitan region were used. Participants completed a risk behavior interview, brief neuropsychological battery, and were tested for Hepatitis C. Results: Findings indicated that scale performances varied by self-reported learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. Poorer performance on one scale was statistically significantly associated with greater hepatitis C prevalence on the vocabulary scale, the discrepancy scale showed a statistical trend. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment measured among this sample of injection drug use was related to pre-existing conditions and hepatitis C independent of years of drug use. Such impairment may exist prior to initiation of use and increase vulnerability to poor health outcomes among injection drug users. Scientific Significance: This study highlights the need for interventions targeting a possible high risk subpopulation of injection drug users.
AB - Background: Hepatitis C represents a significant public health problem, particularly among injection drug users. Other than injection drug practices, little is understood about individual level characteristics that may place some injection drug users at particularly high risk. Objectives: The current study sought to examine two associations among active, regular heroin injection drug users. The first was to determine whether there was an association between two scales from the Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS: a neuropsychological measure used to estimate cognitive impairment/intellectual functioning) and self-reported preexisting conditions independent of years of drug use. The second was to examine whether performance on the scales was associated with hepatitis C infection. Methods: Data from 260 HIV negative injection drug users from the Baltimore metropolitan region were used. Participants completed a risk behavior interview, brief neuropsychological battery, and were tested for Hepatitis C. Results: Findings indicated that scale performances varied by self-reported learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. Poorer performance on one scale was statistically significantly associated with greater hepatitis C prevalence on the vocabulary scale, the discrepancy scale showed a statistical trend. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment measured among this sample of injection drug use was related to pre-existing conditions and hepatitis C independent of years of drug use. Such impairment may exist prior to initiation of use and increase vulnerability to poor health outcomes among injection drug users. Scientific Significance: This study highlights the need for interventions targeting a possible high risk subpopulation of injection drug users.
KW - ADHD
KW - Cognitive impairment
KW - Hepatitis C
KW - Heroin injection drug use
KW - LD
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U2 - 10.3109/00952990903573264
DO - 10.3109/00952990903573264
M3 - Article
C2 - 20141399
AN - SCOPUS:76649123936
SN - 0095-2990
VL - 36
SP - 61
EP - 65
JO - American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
JF - American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
IS - 1
ER -