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Skin Cleaning among Hospitalized Persons Who Inject Drugs: A randomized controlled trial.

AIMS
To test the hypothesis that among hospitalized people who inject drugs (PWID), a brief intervention in skin-cleaning would result in greater reductions in follow-up emergency department (ED) or hospitalization rates compared with a usual care condition.


DESIGN
Randomized, two group (intervention. n=128; usual care, n=124), single site clinical trial with12-month follow-up.


SETTING
Hospital inpatient services in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.


PARTICIPANTS
Persons who injected drugs on at least 3 days each week prior to hospital admission (n=252). Participants averaged 37.9 (± 10.7) years of age, 58.5% were male, 59.3% were white, and 61.1% had a diagnosis related to skin infection at enrollment.


INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR
Intervention was a skin hygiene education and skills-training behavioral intervention (SKIN) consisting of two education and skills-based skin-cleaning sessions, one during hospitalization and another 4 weeks later. Comparator was treatment as usual: an informational brochure about substance use treatment options and needle exchange programs in the area, and follow-up clinical appointments as arranged by the inpatient medical staff.


MEASUREMENTS
Electronic medical records were reviewed and discharge diagnoses for each ED visit and hospital admission were categorized into injection-related bacterial events (e.g., cellulitis) and non-injection-related events. Negative binomial regression was used to test the intervention effects for the primary outcome, total ED visits, as well as the secondary outcomes, total number of hospitalizations, injection drug use related (IDU-related) ED visits, and IDU-related hospitalizations. We also tested whether the outcomes were moderated by whether the initial hospitalization was IDU-related.


FINDINGS
Of persons assigned to SKIN, 66 completed two sessions, 55 completed one session and seven completed zero sessions. Adjusting for baseline covariates, the mean rate of total ED visits in the next 12 months was non-significantly higher (IRR = 1.13; 95%CI 0.96; 1.33, p = .152) compared with usual treatment. The intervention did not significantly reduce total hospitalizations or IDU-related hospitalisations. Adjusting for baseline covariates, the mean rate of injection drug use related ED visits in the next 12 months was lower (IRR = 0.58; 95%CI 0.37; 0.92, p = .019) compared with treatment as usual.


CONCLUSIONS
A skin-cleaning intervention for people who inject drugs delivered during a hospitalization did not significantly reduce either overall emergency department use or hospitalization. There was some evidence that it may have reduced injection drug use related emergency department visits.