Family ties and the frequency of heroin use

Context: Heroin use has been associated with a rapidly increasing rate of HIV infection in Taiwan over the past decade. Current treatment programmes in Taiwan entail either quarantining addicts to achieve abstinence or harm reduction strategies, e.g. by providing methadone. However, both approaches fail to take family into account.Aim: This study aimed to examine the relationship between family ties and the frequency of heroin use.Participants: Data were drawn from the medical records of 532 male drug offenders admitted to the Tainan Drug Abuse Treatment Centre in Taiwan between 2002 and 2003.Methods: We identified three domains of family tie by factor analysis: (1) ties to family of origin; (2) ties to procreation family; and (3) ties to grandparents. We performed ordinary least square regression to evaluate for associations.Results: We found that an increase in the number of ties to different domains of family was associated with a lower frequency of weekly heroin use [coefficient = –1.97, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): –3.64 ˜ –0.31], even when adjusted for other social support factors.Discussion: These results are in concordance with social control theory. Treatment programmes involving family members are discussed.