Spatiotemporal trends in discarded needle reports near schools in Boston, Massachusetts, between 2016-2019

Soojin Conover, Hyeongmo Koo, Renée Boynton-Jarrett

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Childhood exposures to discarded needles pose a direct risk for infection with blood-borne pathogens and psychological trauma for caregivers and children. Little is known about environmental predictors of discarded needles relative to areas where children are frequent, such as schools. Objective: We investigated spatiotemporal trends in discarded needle reports and the density near schools in Boston, Massachusetts, between 2016 and 2019. Methods: We used the kernel density estimation (KDE) and a relative risk function (RRF) to explore their spatial distribution and temporal changes of discarded needles reported through the 311 service request system in Boston. The density of needle pick-up requests around schools was investigated by using Thiessen polygons. Results: Between January 2016 and December 2019, 18,272 discarded needle reports were made. Publicly reported discarded needles in Boston sharply increased over the 4 years and the highest density of needles was found in 2 central neighborhoods. The density of reports of discarded needles near schools increased among the majority of schools. About 30% of schools demonstrated an increase of 100% or more in reports of discarded needles. Conclusion: This analysis provides insight into potential risk of exposure to needle stick injuries for children based on utilizing publicly available crowd-sourced data. Monitoring the density of discarded needles near schools may be a novel approach to improve public health efforts to distribute safe needle disposal locations and reduce injection drug use in public.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)737-745
Number of pages9
JournalAmerican Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Volume47
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Keywords

  • Discarded Needles
  • Geospatial
  • Injection Drug Use
  • Opioid
  • School

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