Table 1 Injection Drug User Quality of Life (IDUQOL) life area names and descriptions

Being Useful

e.g., volunteering, employment, participating in the community, helping others

Community Resources

e.g., food bank, soup kitchen, shelters, outreach programs, social service agencies

Drugs

drug use – e.g., alcohol, heroin, cocaine, crack

Drug Treatment

e.g., detox, recovery house, residential treatment, methadone, abstinence

Education

e.g., formal schooling, literacy programs

Family

e.g., parents, children, siblings, foster families (not friends)

Feeling Good about Yourself

e.g., self-esteem, self-worth

Friends

anyone you consider a friend (but not family)

Harm Reduction

access to, and experience with: e.g., methadone treatment, needle exchange, safe injection programs, prescription heroin

Health

mental and physical health, including HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, disability, schizophrenia

Health Care

access to, and experience with: physicians, nurses, hospitals, clinics, ER

Housing

e.g., owning, renting, house, apartment, hotel room, shelters, homeless

Independence and Free Choice

e.g., making your own decisions, autonomy, being able to do things on your own, having individual rights

Leisure Activities

e.g., music, sports, movies, books, parties

Money

e.g., income, welfare, cash flow, meeting your needs

Neighborhood Safety

e.g., crime, violence, police harassment

Partner(s)

e.g., spouse, common-law partner, same-sex partner, girlfriend or boyfriend (not casual partners)

Sex

e.g., sexual intimacy, quantity or quality of sex, sex in exchange for money or drugs, sexual abuse

Spirituality

e.g., religion, faith, belief in a higher being or spiritual world (or not)

Transportation

e.g., car, taxi, public transportation, getting to places you need to go