Understanding Women's Access To And Utilization Of Syringe Service Programs

Author

Annelisa E. SwierszFollow

Keywords

Syringe Service Programs, women who inject drugs, secondary data analysis, women with children, barriers to accessing healthcare, factors affecting healthcare access

Abstract

As of 2020, 138 million Americans ages 12 and over reported illicit drug use in their lifetime, with over 3 million of those people injecting drugs. There are risks for all people who use drugs, but people who inject drugs (PWID) pose specific risks such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with women who inject drugs (WWID) facing even more risks. WWID involved in sex work have a higher risk of HIV transmission and lack access to sterile injection devices and sexual and reproductive health services. To address these risks, syringe service programs (SSPs) were developed in the late 1980s in the United States to reduce blood-borne illness by providing a safe space to exchange and dispose of used needles and testing and counseling for blood-borne illnesses, depending on the location. Previous research has found that although the number of WWID is increasing, there is a lack of uptake of services provided by SSPs, especially among women with children, but there is insufficient research on the reasons. I performed a secondary data analysis using univariate statistics to describe the sociodemographic and substance use history among the women in the analytic sample. I also calculated these descriptive statistics stratified by women with and without children. This research will give insight into the potential differences between the uptake of resources from SSPs and the goals and needs of women with and without children. This data can assist SSPs in properly identifying and allocating resources for this critically underserved population.

Thesis Completion Year

2025

Thesis Completion Semester

Spring

Thesis Chair

Scheidell, Joy

College

College of Health Professions and Sciences

Department

Health Professions and Sciences

Thesis Discipline

Health Science

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus Access

None

STARS Citation

Swiersz, Annelisa E., "Understanding Women's Access To And Utilization Of Syringe Service Programs" (2025). Honors Undergraduate Theses. 291.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/hut2024/291