Prevalence of substance abuse, violence, HIV/AIDS (SAVA) syndrome among injecting drug users in six cities of Russian Federation

Abstract

Study of the peculiarity of HIV spread, first of all in the cities led to the formulation of syndemic concept — mutually enhancing set of social, behavioral and biological characteristics of which most frequently mentioned is a combination of substance abuse, victimization (experience of violence) and presence of HIV-infection or AIDS (SAVA syndrome). The prevalence of this syndemic is not studied in detail in Russian Federation.The goal of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of this syndrome and its components among injecting drug users in six cities in the Russian Federation.Results and discussion. The summary prevalence of the full SAVA was 12,3% (95% CI=10,0–14,.6%), but there were significant differences between cities especially between St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk (18,9% vs 6,7%, р=0,031). Prevalence of incomplete SAVA syndrome (without the mandatory presence of HIV/AIDS) was 66,0% (95% CI=62,4–69,6%) the and majority of respondents (96,8%) had up to 4 SAVA components. There were no statistically significant differences in SAVA prevalence depending on gender. SAVA is relatively highly prevalent among IDU in participating cities and does not relate to respondents’ gender.