ARQ part II data management

ARQ part II data management Training pack 4: Terminology

Drug treatment • Process of intervention directed towards individual active drug users offered by providers of health, social or community services, aiming at ending or reducing the use of drugs or the negative consequences of drug use • ARQ: any service provision that a country labels “drug treatment”

Drug-related AIDS deaths • Deaths among injecting drug users where: • AIDS has been assessed as the direct underlying cause of death • Drug injecting has been identified as the mode of transmission of HIV

Drug-related morbidity • The extent of diseases related to or associated with the use of illicit drugs • Includes diseases caused by the use of drugs but does not exclude other causes • ARQ: limited to infections of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV among injecting drug users • Usually reported as a (cumulative) incidence of detected cases

Drug-related mortality • The extent of deaths related to or associated with the use of illicit drugs • Includes deaths directly or indirectly caused by the use of drugs but does not exclude other cases where drug use has been a contributory cause or is involved in the circumstances of death • ARQ: country-specific definition applies

Fatal drug overdose • Case of deaths where an overdose of or intoxication with illicit drugs is assessed as the direct underlying cause of death • Usually recorded in general mortality registers based on ICD-9 or ICD-10 or in special mortality registers

Illicit drug • Any drug listed in the schedules to the international drug control conventions whose origin was illicit or illegal

Injecting drug use/user • Taking drugs by means of injecting/the person doing so • Methods of injecting:intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular • Injecting drug user: usually refers to drug users who have injected a drug at least once during the previous 12 months

New drug/pattern of use/user group • ARQ: drugs, patterns of use and user groups observed in the reporting year but not in the year before • “New” depends on the perspective of the reporting country

Patterns of drug use • ARQ: broad concept including: • How drugs are used (mode or route of administration, regularity, frequency, etc.) • In which environment or circumstances they are used (site and setting)

Prevalence of drugs (1) • The extent of drug use among a reference population during a reference period • Drug use means having taken a drug at least once during the reference period • Common reference populations: • General population: 15-64 years • Youth population: 15-24 years

Prevalence of drugs (2) • Prevalence is expressed as a percentage of the reference population • Standard prevalence measures relate to reference period: • Lifetime prevalence (“ever use”) • Last 12 months’ prevalence (“recent use”, “use in reporting year”) • Last 30 days’ prevalence (“current use”)

Severe drug abuse (problem drug use) • Problematic or chronic drug use or drug users in need of help from the perspective of the reporting country: • Applies only when a country differentiates between types or patterns of drug use • ARQ: specification of the definition used is required

Sharing needles or syringes • Using a needle or syringe that has been used previously by someone else

Classification of drugs

ARQ part II data management