Self-reported morbidity and health-related quality of life of persons who inject drugs in Brussels, Belgium.

“SELF-REPORTED MORBIDITY AND HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE OF PERSONS WHO INJECT DRUGS IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.” Author : Thomas Pelseneer September 2018 1. CONTENT This research will study the impact of injecting drug use on self-reported morbidity and health-related quality of life of persons who inject drugs (PWID) in Brussels, Belgium. Specifically, we will assess the prevalence of 12 major IDU-related conditions, i.e., Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV), Syphilis, malnutrition, poor-dental condition, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and suicide, scarring, soft skin infections (i.e. cutaneous ulcer, abscess, phlebitis, etc.), pain, constipation and, finally, OD. Health-related quality of life will be also assessed using the internationally validated EuroQol 5 Dimensions. 2. METHODS The target population is all adult who inject drugs in Brussels. The sampling size is fixed at 60. Data was collected through a self-made questionnaire. All statistical analysis was made in SAS Statistical analysis program. We analysed the sociodemographic characteristics and the addiction profile of the respondents in order to describe the studied population (descriptive statistics). We made also a prevalence description of the 12 major IDU conditions that we studied in order to bring the first answers to our research question. Finally, we analysed the EQ-5D 5L questionnaire which evaluate the quality of life of the respondents for both age groups. Difference between those groups was test in a Khi² test for each dimension. Those analyses bring some other answers to the research question. 3. RESULTS PWID have many affections among which HCV (76.3%), HIV (13.2%), MDD (65.8%), poor dental health (71.1%), OD life-time prevalence (57.9%), SSI (36.8%) and pain (36.8%) are the most represented within the sample. PWID have a bad quality life and reported problems in the five dimensions of EQ-5D questionnaire but it was the anxiety/depression dimension that was the most affected in the objective scale.