Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs

© 2017 Scott et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Aims To determine whether the self-reported...

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Main Authors: Scott, N., Carrotte, E., Higgs, Peter, Stoové, M., Aitken, C., Dietze, P.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Public Library of Science 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54918
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author Scott, N.
Carrotte, E.
Higgs, Peter
Stoové, M.
Aitken, C.
Dietze, P.
author_facet Scott, N.
Carrotte, E.
Higgs, Peter
Stoové, M.
Aitken, C.
Dietze, P.
author_sort Scott, N.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2017 Scott et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Aims To determine whether the self-reported personal wellbeing of a cohort of people who inject drugs (PWID) changes over time, and to identify longitudinal correlates of change. Methods We us ed Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) scores reported between April 2008 and February 2015 by 757 PWID (66% male) enrolled in the Melbourne Injecting Drug Use Cohort Study (2,862 interviews; up to seven follow-up waves). A mixed-effects model was used to identify correlations between changes in temporal variables and changes in individual PWI scores while controlling for demographic variables. Results The cohort's mean PWI score did not significantly differ over time (between 54.4/100 and 56.7/100 across the first four interview waves), and was 25-28% lower than general Australian population scores (76.0/100). However, there were large variations in individuals' PWI scores between interviews. Increased psychological distress, moving into unstable accommodation, reporting intentional overdose in the past 12 months and being the victim of assault in the past six months were associated with declines in PWI scores. Conclusions Participants experienced substantially lower levels of personal wellbeing than the general Australian population, influenced by experiences of psychological distress, assault, overdose and harms related to low socioeconomic status. The results of this study suggest a need to ensure referral to appropriate housing and health support services for PWID.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-549182017-09-13T15:50:07Z Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs Scott, N. Carrotte, E. Higgs, Peter Stoové, M. Aitken, C. Dietze, P. © 2017 Scott et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Aims To determine whether the self-reported personal wellbeing of a cohort of people who inject drugs (PWID) changes over time, and to identify longitudinal correlates of change. Methods We us ed Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) scores reported between April 2008 and February 2015 by 757 PWID (66% male) enrolled in the Melbourne Injecting Drug Use Cohort Study (2,862 interviews; up to seven follow-up waves). A mixed-effects model was used to identify correlations between changes in temporal variables and changes in individual PWI scores while controlling for demographic variables. Results The cohort's mean PWI score did not significantly differ over time (between 54.4/100 and 56.7/100 across the first four interview waves), and was 25-28% lower than general Australian population scores (76.0/100). However, there were large variations in individuals' PWI scores between interviews. Increased psychological distress, moving into unstable accommodation, reporting intentional overdose in the past 12 months and being the victim of assault in the past six months were associated with declines in PWI scores. Conclusions Participants experienced substantially lower levels of personal wellbeing than the general Australian population, influenced by experiences of psychological distress, assault, overdose and harms related to low socioeconomic status. The results of this study suggest a need to ensure referral to appropriate housing and health support services for PWID. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54918 10.1371/journal.pone.0178474 Public Library of Science unknown
spellingShingle Scott, N.
Carrotte, E.
Higgs, Peter
Stoové, M.
Aitken, C.
Dietze, P.
Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
title Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
title_full Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
title_fullStr Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
title_full_unstemmed Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
title_short Longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
title_sort longitudinal changes in personal wellbeing in a cohort of people who inject drugs
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54918