The Event

A seminar co-sponsored by CREIDU and the Centre for Mental Health, University of Melbourne

A record-linkage study by Seaman et al. (1998) aimed to discover the impact of incarceration in Edinburgh Prison on the morbidity and mortality in male, HIV-infected injectors, and to shed light on HIV seroconversions during incarceration. A  subsequent study by Bird & Hutchinson (2003) confirmed very high risk of drugs-related death soon after prison-release. A third study followed 636 men who had been in Glenochil Prison in 1993, for subsequent HIV diagnoses. This followed an outbreak of 14 HIV seroconversions at Glenochil Prison, 13 of which shared the same molecular signature. Health Protection Scotland needed to understand late liver sequelae of Scotland’s injector-related hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic so Hutchinson et al. used record linkage to study Scotland’s ‘virtual cohort’ of HCV-diagnosed individuals. 

With injectors the majority, we related morbidity and mortality to time since starting to inject, as recorded on the Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD). Fortuitously, we gained access to all SDMD records, enabling analysis of hospitalisations, HCV diagnoses, and cause-specific mortality. Meanwhile, our MRC-funded Addictions Cluster linked data from the Drug Data Warehouse (DDW) to the deaths register in England and Wales to analyse opioid-users’ cause-specific mortality in relation to gender and age group, behavioural risks (injecting, misuse of alcohol & benzodiazepines), criminal justice referral into drug treatment, and treatment modality. In a seventh major study we linked Scotland’s prisoner register (1996-2007) to the deaths’ register to 31 December 2007, to examine longer-term, age-related, cause-specific mortality of the ever-incarcerated versus Scotland’s age-appropriate mortality rates. I focused on whether prison-based opioid-substitution therapy (OST) reduced drugrelated death rates in 12-weeks post-release (yes) and whether the percentage of 12-weeks DRDs that occurred in the first fortnight was substantially less than 60% (no). An earlier meta-analysis suggested that reduction to 47% might be plausible. Results are, of course, as important as how we obtain them! I focus on the newest . . .

Who Should Attend?

All visitors are welcome. 

Schedule

A light luncheon will be served inside Room 515 prior to seminar start.

Please RSVP to Joy Yeadon via 8344 9111 or 8344 0710 or [email protected]

Date & Time

Monday 30 June 2014 12:30 – Monday 30 June 2014 13:30

Venue

Room 515
Level 5, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne
207 Bouverie St
Carlton
VIC

Contact

Please contact Joy Yeadon to register your interest:

Website

http://creidu.edu.au/system/resource/26/file/Sheila_Bird_Flyer.pdf