Mortality of those who attended drug services in Scotland 1996-2006: record-linkage study

Elizabeth L.C. Merrall, Sheila M Bird, Sharon J Hutchinson

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52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine major causes of death amongst persons in contact with drug-treatment services across Scotland during April 1996–March 2006, hereafter Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) cohort. Drug-treatment records were linked to national registers of deaths and hepatitis C virus (HCV) diagnoses. For eras 1996/97–2000/01 and 2001/02–2005/06, we calculated cause-specific death-rates and standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) using age-, sex- and calendar-rates of the general Scottish population. Major causes of death were identified by high SMRs (>5 across eras) or rates (>50 per 100,000 person-years in either era), and their time-specific influences characterised by proportional hazards analyses.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24–32
Number of pages19
JournalInternational Journal of Drug Policy
Volume23
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords

  • Scotland
  • drug treatment
  • record linkage study
  • Hepatitis C

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