Individual-level, Network-level and City-level Factors Associated with HIV Prevalence Among People Who Inject Drugs in Eight Russian Cities: a Cross-sectional Study

Objectives: To ascertain HIV prevalence among people who inject drug (injection drug users (IDUs)) in the Russian Federation and identify explanations for the disparity in different cities.

Design: Cross-sectional survey with serological testing for HIV and hepatitis C virus prevalent infections.

Setting: 8 Russian cities-Irkutsk, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Naberezhnye Chelny, Voronezh, Orel and St Petersburg.

Participants: In 2007-2009 active IDUs were recruited by respondent-driven sampling with a target sample size of 300 or more in each city.

Main Outcome Measures: Participants were administered a questionnaire covering sociodemographics, injection risk and protective behaviours, sexual behaviours, HIV knowledge, experiences with drug treatment and harm reduction programmes and social networks. Participants were tested for HIV and hepatitis C by enzyme immunoassay. Data were analysed to identify individual-level, network-level and city-level characteristics significantly associated with HIV prevalence. Factors significant at p≤0.1 were entered into a hierarchical regression model to control for multicollinearity.

Results: A total of 2596 active IDUs were recruited, interviewed and tested for HIV and hepatitis C virus infection. HIV prevalence ranged from 3% (in Voronezh) to 64% (in Yekaterinburg). Although individual-level and network-level variables explain some of the difference in prevalence across the eight cities, the over-riding variable that seems to account for most of the variance is the emergence of commercial, as opposed to homemade, heroin as the predominant form of opioid injected.

Conclusions: The expansion of commercial heroin markets to many Russian cities may have served as a trigger for an expanding HIV epidemic among IDUs in that country.