Education improves needle-exchange program success

A study conducted by the New York Academy of Medicine found that enhanced community-based education improved the success of a needle-exchange program in stopping the use of dirty needles. The study compared two needle-exchange programs, one with enhanced educational outreach to the community, local pharmacists, and the drug users, and the other with a standard approach. Researchers discovered that only 16% of intravenous drug users who received the enhanced educational outreach used dirty syringes compared with 26% of those who had not. The results of the study appeared in the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

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