Centre for Social Research in Health

The Couples Who Inject Drugs (CUPID) project was funded by the NHMRC and began in 2012. Our interest was to examine, in detail, the experiences of injecting among heterosexual couples.
Couples (sexual partnerships) are an important group to understand. Data derived from surveys of people who inject (such as clients at Needle and Syringe Programs) show that a significant proportion of sharing equipment occurs between sexual partners.
Sexual partnerships are different from relationships between friends or acquaintances. Issues of trust and intimacy, and gender and power, may be relevant to, and important for understanding, how hepatitis C can be addressed in couples.
Our rationale for this study also responded to the existing approach to hepatitis C risk – one that to date has focused only intermittently on the social nature of injecting drug use. Most studies of risk focus specifically on the individual and pay little attention to who else may be present during injecting, and the broader social forces in play when injecting occurs. Our research in a previous study also showed that most health promotion materials in the hepatitis C field speak only to the individual, taking little account of important social relationships such as sexual partnerships.
In conducting our research, we undertook in-depth interviews with heterosexual couples in Sydney and Melbourne. We also interviewed front-line health workers (recruited from harm reduction services) in both cities. Related to this data collection, we have also developed, and will test, a new fitpack design and new health promotion messages aimed at couples. Stay tuned for the results of these trials.
Centre for Social Research in Health
Hepatitis and Harm Reduction
NHMRC Project Grant
Professor Suzanne Fraser (Curtin University), Professor Tim Rhodes (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Ms Nicky Bath (formerly of NSW Users and AIDS Association), Dr Mary Ellen Harrod (NSW Users and AIDS Association