Estimating Individual Syringe Coverage at Syringe Services Programs

Last updated July 20th, 2023

The purpose of this guidance is to help syringe services programs (SSPs) in collecting and analyzing data on individual syringe coverage for their participants. Syringe coverage is an indicator that can help SSPs and other stakeholders estimate if people who inject drugs have enough syringes to reduce risks of infections and vein damage. This guidance is focused on calculating syringe coverage for the participants of one program and for sub-groups of participants of a program (e.g. participants who are unhoused). Health departments and researchers who work with SSPs could use this information to meaningfully engage with harm reduction staff to survey people who inject drugs and assess resource gaps.

An example spreadsheet is included below for SSPs to better visualize what the recommended analysis might look like, which they can also adapt for their own uses.

The syringe coverage guidance is supplemented by a summary of the evidence supporting needs-based syringe distribution as an evidence-based best practice. This summary can be used to understand key messages about needs-based distribution to support community engagement and internal advocacy.