Characteristics of injection drug using parents who retain their children

While it is known that injection drug users (IDUs) often have their childre n removed or place them voluntarily, little is known about factors associat ed with whether IDU parents live with their children. We identified a commu nity sample of 391 IDU parents with at least one child under age 14 (index IDU parents). For these IDU parents, 62% did not have any of their children under age 14 living with them. We assessed whether certain health factors, risk related behaviors, social indicators, and active drug use were relate d to whether children of IDUs were living with the index IDU parent. IDU pa rents who were living with their children were overwhelmingly more likely t o be female, more likely to have health insurance, and engage in no-risk or low-risk drug practices, as compared to moderate/high-risk practices. Addi tionally, HIV negative and HIV positive asymptomatic parents were about thr ee times more likely to be living with their children than HIV positive par ents with clinical symptoms commonly seen among those suffering from HIV-re lated illnesses. HIV-related clinical symptoms, rather than HIV status per se, seem to be associated with retention of children. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sci ence Ireland Ltd. AII rights reserved.