Citation

Goldenberg SM. JAMA Netw. Open 2020; 3(10): e2021066.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.21066

PMID

33044547

Abstract

People who use drugs (PWUD) across diverse global contexts are facing an unprecedented overdose crisis, with rates of overdose-related morbidity and mortality continuing to increase in many settings. Although opioid-related overdoses represent an urgent public health and social emergency that affect men, women, and gender-diverse individuals, our current understanding of gendered experiences and needs in the context of the overdose crisis remains limited.1 To inform robust responses to the overdose crisis, research, policy, and interventions must carefully consider gender-based experiences, including the unique harm reduction and addiction service needs of women who use drugs.2,3 For example, harm reduction services tend to be male-oriented spaces, and women often report highly gendered barriers to accessing harm reduction, including the unique and overlapping stigmas faced by women who use drugs, concerns regarding safety, and the threat of violence in and beyond service delivery settings.4

Sex workers are overrepresented among PWUD2,3,5 and face disproportionate health and social inequities, including a high burden of HIV and sexually transmitted infections,2,3 as well as workplace violence, criminalization, and stigma.3,6 The current study by El-Bassel and colleagues7 provides a novel contribution by examining the association of various forms of violence—including intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence—with nonfatal overdose among female sex workers who use drugs in Kazakhstan. Given that little is known regarding the overdose experiences of women who use drugs, sex workers in low-income and middle-income countries, or the associations of these with gender-based violence, this work has important implications for the design of harm reduction and other health and social services for women who use drugs and sex workers ...

Language: en