Physical injecting sites among injecting drug users in Sydney, Australia

A sample of 200 injecting drug users were interviewed about their bodily in jection sites. The mean number of injection sites ever used by subjects was 3.1, with a mean of 2.0 sites used in the previous 6 months. Sixteen perce nt of subjects had injected in five or more sites. Almost all (99%) had inj ected in the cubital fossa (crook of the arm). The next most popular site w as the forearm (71%). Other sites included the hand (53%), foot (19%), leg (18%), neck (10%) and groin (6%). There was a clear progression in sites us ed, from the cubital fossa at initial injection to the use of sites such as the groin after 10 years of injecting. Females had used significantly more injection sites than males and reported more injection-related problems. T he use of more injection sites was independently associated with a greater number of injection-related problems and a greater number of drug classes e ver injected. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.