Aims. To measure the current prevalence of different routes of heroin
administration among users and to describe the most frequent patterns
in the evolution of the main route from the time of first use to the p
resent and their implications for the control of the HIV epidemic. Des
ign. Cross-sectional study. Face-to-face interviews using a structured
questionnaire. Setting and participants. Nine hundred and nine regula
r heroin users from Madrid, Barcelona and Seville (about 300 per city)
, half of them recruited in treatment centres and the other half out o
f treatment. Measurements. Socio-demographic characteristics, current
and historical behaviours related to route of administration. Findings
. Before 1980 injection was the first main route of heroin administrat
ion for most users in Barcelona and Madrid; in Seville smoking already
predominated, although 40% of users began by injecting. Sniffing subs
equently became predominant in Barcelona, while smoking became the pre
dominant first route in Madrid and Seville (smoking has been the only
first route in Seville since 1991). The prevalence of injection as the
main route of administration during the last 30 days was 77.3% in Bar
celona, 24.3% in Madrid and 23.9% in Seville; smoking predominated in
the latter two cities. The factors most strongly associated with injec
tion as the preferred route were city of recruitment and having a part
ner who injected. Some 73% of those who stopped injecting in their las
t change of route stated that the results of their HIV test or fear of
becoming infected had been important in making this decision. Conclus
ions. The change from injecting to smoking will greatly facilitate the
control of HIV infection in Spain. However, the main causal factor do
es not appear to be the perception of HIV risk, but rather other, ecol
ogical factors (cultural or market-related). The absence of these fact
ors in some areas may impede the spread of smoking.