Aims. Identification of characteristics and trends over time in young injec
ting drug users at first attendance at needle exchange. Design. Retrospecti
ve cross-sectional survey of routinely collected data. Setting. Dublin need
le exchange programme which consists of 11 sites in the greater Dublin area
. Participants. First-time attenders (n = 1224) at the needle exchange from
1990 to 1997, between the ages of 15 and 19. Measurement. Factors associat
ed with a likelihood of needle sharing and condom use were tested using log
istic regression. Findings. Increases in both the number and proportion of
young injectors, particularly young female injectors, have occurred over th
e 8 years. Forty-eight per cent of the young injectors were injecting for l
ess than 1 year. Needle sharing prevalence in the year previous to first at
tendance was 39% and condom use was 61%. The proportion of females not usin
g a condom during sexual relationships was significantly higher than males.
Very few of the young attenders had received any treatment for drug depend
ance. Conclusions. After the first year of injecting drug use the likelihoo
d of needle sharing increased and we recommend that interventions occur ear
ly on and are targeted to the needs of young injecting drug users, in parti
cular young females. It is essential that services are accessible to the yo
ung injecting drug user and that barriers to contact with services are mini
mized or eliminated. Some high-risk behaviours are occurring in the context
of the sexual relationship and this should be taken into account when desi
gning prevention programmes, especially for young females.