Physical injecting sites among injecting drug users in Sydney, Australia

A sample of 200 injecting drug users were interviewed about their bodily injection sites. The mean number of injection sites ever used by subjects was 3.1, with a mean of 2.0 sites used in the previous 6 months. Sixteen percent of subjects had injected in five or more sites. Almost all (99%) had injected in the cubital fossa (crook of the arm). The next most popular site was the forearm (71%). Other sites included the hand (53%), foot (19%), leg (18%), neck (10%) and groin (6%). There was a clear progression in sites used, from the cubital fossa at initial injection to the use of sites such as the groin after 10 years of injecting. Females had used significantly more injection sites than males and reported more injection-related problems. The use of more injection sites was independently associated with a greater number of injection-related problems and a greater number of drug classes ever injected.