Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117425

Matthew J. Magee, BA, Jaclyn Pruitt, MA, Lawrence Ouellet, PhD, and Susan L. Bailey, PhD. Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Illinois Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, 312 355 3991, jaclynp@uic.edu

Objectives: Family and parent interventions have proven useful in addressing substance abuse and other problematic behavior in young adults. We assess the willingness of parents/guardians of young IDUs to attend a two-phase HIV/HCV risk reduction education and case management intervention. Methods: IDUs 18-25 years old were recruited in Chicago through outreach and respondent-driven sampling. Nearly 41% of the 536 enrolled IDUs agreed to let us contact their parent. Results: To date, 49% (n=107) of eligible parents completed telephone surveys and 36 completed the intervention. Parents were mainly female (85%) and the median age was 50 years. Nearly 44% of male parents attended an intervention compared to 32% of female parents. Parents employed full-time were more likely to attend (38%) than were unemployed parents (25%). Similarly, 39% of parents whose IDU child lived with them for 6-12 months in the past year attended an intervention compared to 24% of parents whose IDU child lived with them for 0-5 months. Parents were more likely to attend an intervention if their IDU child had injected drugs for 4 years or more (OR 3.42, 95% CI 1.74-6.60) or was employed (OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.23-4.32). Conclusion: Intervention attendance by parents in our ongoing study appears less restricted by time constraints such as parents' employment, than by measures of stability and the parent-child relationship. While interventions for parents provide an opportunity to lower the health risks of young adult IDUs, further exploration of attendance trends is needed.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Identify differences between parents of young IDUs that attend a risk reduction intervention session and parents that do not attend.
• Describe the demographics of suburban Chicago parents of young IDUs in our study.
• List needed research approaches for evaluating the feasibility of family substance abuse interventions.

Keywords: Injecting Drug Use, Intervention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.