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Hepatitis C percentage of people injecting drugs with adequate needle and syringe provision

Last updated on Thursday, 10 April 2025 at 03:31pm

Summary

Topic
Hepatitis-C
Category
prevention
API name
hepatitis-c_prevention_PWIDproportionNSP

Rationale

Measures to prevent transmission of hepatitis C virus are a cornerstone of the public health response to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat in England. Harm reduction interventions such as sterile injecting equipment are important for people who inject drugs in order to prevent and reduce the risk of transmission of hepatitis C virus as well as reduce the risk of reinfection following treatment.

Definition

This metric shows the proportion of people who injected drugs in the past year reported having adequate needle and syringe provision (NSP) for their needs.

Methodology

The proportion of people who inject drugs with adequate NSP for their needs is calculated using data from the Unlinked Anonymous Monitoring (UAM) Survey. NSP is considered ‘adequate’ when the reported number of needles received met or exceeded the number of times the individual reported injecting in the past month. This calculation uses 4 questions asked in the UAM Survey:

  • ‘How many times do you visit a needle exchange in a typical month?’
  • ‘How many needles do you typically collect during each visit?’
  • ‘In the last month, on how many days have you injected drugs?’
  • ‘On the last full day that you injected, how many times did you inject drugs?’

Coverage is calculated as the proportion of ‘needles collected’ (needles collected per visit multiplied by visits per month) divided by ‘needles required’ (injections per day multiplied by days injected per month).

People who collected 100% or more of the needles required were categorised as having ‘adequate’ coverage, whereas those collecting less than 100% of their required needles were categorised as having ‘inadequate’ coverage. The calculation does not account for the fact that an individual may take multiple attempts to insert a needle before successfully accessing a vein, also known as achieving a ‘hit’.

Caveats

A new UAM indicator was introduced in 2017 meaning that data from 2017 onwards cannot be directly compared with that from earlier years

During 2020 and 2021, recruitment to the UAM Survey was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, there were changes in the geographic and demographic profile of people taking part. This should be taken into account when interpreting data for these years.

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