Background: Chinese injection drug users (IDUs) may be a proper candidate population for HIV vaccine trials.
Objective: To evaluate willingness to participate (WTP) in HIV vaccine trials among Chinese IDUs.
Methods: Questionnaire interviews were completed among 401 IDUs in Urumqi City in northwestern China in 2005.
Results: Overall 74.3% of participants said that they would be definitely willing to participate in HIV vaccine trials, 17.7% were probably willing, 6.2% were probably not willing, and remaining 1.8% were definitely not willing to join. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that WTP was positively associated with having ever had sex with a drug use partner (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04, 3.2), sharing needle and syringe with a new drug use partner in the past 3 months (AOR: 3.8; 95% CI: 1.2, 11.7), perceived family support for participation (AOR: 7.4; 95% CI: 4.3, 12.7), and perceived vaccine protection against HIV infection (AOR: 16.1; 95% CI: 3.7, 70.8), and was negatively associated with perceived risk of social stigma and isolation for participation (AOR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2, 0.5).
Conclusions: The stated WTP in hypothetical HIV vaccine trials was high among Chinese IDUs. Further studies are needed to evaluate actual enrollment into the trials.