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Table 1 Epidemiological indicators for people who use drugs being used at European Union level

From: Monitoring quality and coverage of harm reduction services for people who use drugs: a consensus study

Domain

Indicators

Countries, out of 30, reporting in 2011–2015b

Data type

Additional information

Prevalence of drug use in the general populationa

Prevalence of lifetime use, last year use, last month use

25

%

Representative (household) surveys with breakdowns by drug, age, gender, complemented by school surveys in 15-16 year old students (ESPAD) http://www.espad.org/

High-risk drug use/problem drug usea,c

Population size estimates of high-risk PWUD including hidden populations (all, opioids, stimulants, PWID)

25

Rate/1000

Confidence intervals, estimation methods

Treatment demanda

Clients entering treatment

30

Counts

Breakdowns by ever previously treated, treatment type, prison, main drug, sex, age at treatment, age at first use, referral source, living status, education, labour status, route of administration, frequency of use

Overdose deathsa

Number of deaths, average age

30

Counts

Breakdowns by gender, toxicology, ICD code

Infectious diseasesa

Notifications and prevalence of HIV/AIDS, HBV, HCV among PWID

Prevalence: HIV 29 HCV 25, HBV 18–16; notifications: HIV/AIDS 30/29

Counts, %

Prevalence among young and new PWID

Seizures of drugs

Number, quantity in kg

28, 30

Counts, weights

Seizures by drug class, cannabis plants, tablets/doses

Price, purity/potency

Price, potency/purity

29, 29

Euro/g, % (%THC)e

Sample size, summary statistics, composition (% MDMAd/(meth)amphetamines)

Drug use in prison

Prevalence of lifetime use, last year use, last month use

10

%

Breakdowns by: before/in prison, drug class

Drug law offences

Number of: offences, offenders, either

25, 21, 30

Counts

Breakdowns by type (use, supply), drug class

  1. aFive ‘key epidemiological indicators’. Available at http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/data/stats2016
  2. bYear of reporting data to EMCDDA–the actual study year (year of primary data collection) is mostly 1 year earlier
  3. cThis key indicator has been renamed from ‘Problem Drug Use’ (definition: ‘injecting drug use or long duration/regular use of opiates, cocaine and/or amphetamines’) to ‘High Risk Drug Use’ (definition: ‘recurrent drug use that is causing actual harms (negative consequences) to the person (including dependence but also other health, psychological or social problems), or is placing the person at a high probability/risk of suffering such harms’). It attempts to define and estimate the population size of those PWUD that are likely to be in need of services due to having (a high risk of) negative consequences from their drug use, such as PWID or people who use opioids
  4. d3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (‘ecstasy’)
  5. eTetrahydrocannabinol