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Danielle C. Ompad, PhD, Robin M. Ikeda, MD, MPH, Nina Shah, MS, Crystal M. Fuller, PhD, Susan Bailey, PhD, Edward Morse, PhD, Peter Kerndt, MD, MPH, Carey Maslow, PhD, Yingfeng Wu, David Vlahov, PhD, Richard Garfein, PhD, MPH, Steffanie A. Strathdee, PhD for The Collaborative Injection Drug Users Study II

At the time of this study, Danielle C. Ompad, Nina Shah, Steffanie Strathdee, and David Vlahov were with the Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Md. Danielle C. Ompad and David Vlahov were also with Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies at the New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY. Crystal M. Fuller and Yingfeng Wu are with Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies at the New York Academy of Medicine. C. M. Fuller is also with the Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York. Robin M. Ikeda is with the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. Susan Bailey is with the Community Outreach Intervention Projects, University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago. Ed-ward Morse is with the Department of Sociology, Tulane University, New Orleans, La. Peter Kerndt is with the HIV Epidemiology Program, Department of Health Services, County of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif. Carey Maslow is with National Research and Development Institute, New York. Richard Garfein is with the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Danielle C. Ompad, New York Academy of Medicine, Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, 1216 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029 (e-mail: dompad{at}nyam.org).

Objectives. We examined the relation between childhood sexual abuse and injection drug use initiation among young adult injection drug users.

Methods. We used mixed effect linear models to compare age at first injection among 2143 young injection drug users by first sexual abuse age categories.

Results. The participants were predominantly male (63.3%) and White (52.8%). Mean age and age at first injection were 23.7 and 19.6 years, respectively; 307 participants (14.3%) reported childhood sexual abuse. After adjustment for gender, race/ethnicity, noninjection drug use before first injection drug use, and recruitment site, childhood sexual abuse was independently associated with younger age at first injection.

Conclusions. Childhood sexual abuse was associated with earlier initiation of injection drug use. These data emphasize the need to integrate substance abuse prevention with postvictimization services for children and adolescents.