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Qualitative Health Research
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Contradictions and Misperceptions: An Exploration of Injecting Practice, Cleanliness, Risk, and Partnership in the Lives of Women Drug Users

Laura Sheard

University of Leeds, and Leeds Primary Care Trust, Leeds, United Kingdom

Charlotte Tompkins

Leeds Primary Care Trust, Leeds, United Kingdom

We report the findings of an in-depth interview study conducted with 45 women injecting drug users in Britain. Women described experiences of injecting themselves and being injected by others, including instances of bodily harm and pain. Cleanliness when injecting was an issue of particular importance. An interesting division ("line of decency") occurred between opinions on sharing needles versus sharing injecting equipment. Partnership dynamics were important and partners sometimes had a pervasive influence on women's drug use and injecting practices. Narratives of risk showed that some women understood the risk of blood-borne viruses and outlined practical risk-prevention strategies. Some women did not perceive themselves to be at particular risk. Moral opinions were voiced about the risk behavior of others. Notions of risk were highly contextual and depended on a woman's immediate injecting situation. This article reports the inherent complexity resident in women drug users' decisions surrounding their injecting behavior.

Key Words: addictions • qualitative methods • general • relationships • risk • perceptions • substance use • women's health

Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 18, No. 11, 1536-1547 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1049732308325838
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