Suchergebnisse

AbstractPeople affected by substance use disorders often experience sub‐optimal employment outcomes. The role of drug use in processes that produce and entrench labour market precarity among people who inject drugs (PWID) have not, however, been fully described. We recruited 22PWIDfrom ongoing prospective cohort studies in Vancouver, Canada, with whom we conducted semi‐structured retrospective interviews and then employed a thematic analysis that drew on concepts from life course theory to explore the mechanisms and pathways linking drug use and labour market trajectories. The participants' narratives identified processes corresponding to causation, whereby suboptimal employment outcomes led to harmful drug use; direct selection, where impairment, health complications or drug‐seeking activities selected individuals out of employment; and indirect selection, where external factors, such as catastrophic events, marked the initiation or intensification of substance use concurrent with sudden changes in capacities for employment. Catastrophic events linking negative transitions in both drug use and labour market trajectories were of primary importance, demarcating critical initiation and transitional events in individual risk trajectories. These results challenge conventional assumptions about the primacy of drug use in determining employment outcomes amongPWIDand suggest the importance of multidimensional support to mitigate the initiation, accumulation and entrenchment of labour market and drug‐related disadvantage.

Background: The monthly disbursement of social assistance (SA) payments to people who use illicit drugs (PWUD) has been temporally associated with increases in drug-related harm. Yet, whether SA receipt changes drug use intensity compared to levels of use at other times in the month has not been established. We therefore examined this relationship among PWUD in Vancouver, Canada (2005–2013). Methods: Data were derived from prospective cohorts of HIV-positive and HIV-negative PWUD. Every six months, participants were asked about their illicit drug use during the last 180 days and the past week. We determined whether SA receipt occurred within the assessment's one-week recall period. We employed generalized estimating equations controlling for confounders to examine the relationship between SA receipt and the change in drug use intensity, defined as a 100% increase in the average times per day a given drug was used in the last week compared to the previous 6 months. We tested the robustness of this relationship by stratifying analyses by whether individuals primarily used stimulants, illicit opioids or engaged in polydrug use and examining the timing of SA receipt relative to date of assessment. Results: Our study included 2661 individuals (median age 36, 32% female) with 1415 (53.2%) reporting SA receipt occurring within the one-week recall period of the assessment at least once. SA receipt was independently associated with intensified drug use (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR]: 1.79; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.53, 2.09), and remained significant when stratified by primary use of stimulants (AOR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.54, 2.26), opioids (AOR: 1.96; 95% CI: 1.23, 3.13) and polydrug use (AOR: 1.53; 95% CI: 1.11, 2.10). Conclusion: We found a temporal association between SA receipt and drug use intensification. While the health and social benefits of SA are significant, these findings suggest that alternative disbursement strategies, such as staggered or smaller and more frequent SA payments may be able to mitigate drug-related harm. Alternatives should be tested rigorously. ; Medicine, Faculty of ; Other UBC ; Non UBC ; Medicine, Department of ; Sociology, Department of ; Reviewed ; Faculty ; Researcher

BACKGROUND: Government social assistance payments seek to alleviate poverty and address survival needs, but their monthly disbursement may cue increases in illicit drug use. This cue may be magnified when assistance is disbursed simultaneously across the population. Synchronized payments have been linked to escalations in drug use and unintended but severe drug-related harms, including overdose, as well as spikes in demand for health, social, financial and police services. METHODS/DESIGN: The TASA study examines whether changing payment timing and frequency can mitigate drug-related harm associated with synchronized social assistance disbursement. The study is a parallel arm multi-group randomized controlled trial in which 273 participants are randomly allocated for six assistance cycles to a control or one of two intervention arms on a 1:1:1 basis. Intervention arm participants receive their payments: (1) monthly; or (2) semi-monthly, in each case on days that are not during the week when cheques are normally issued. The study partners with a community-based credit union that has developed a system to vary social assistance payment timing. The primary outcome is a 40 % increase in drug use during the 3 days beginning with cheque issue day compared to other days of the month. Bi-weekly follow-up interviews collect participant information on this and secondary outcomes of interest, including drug-related harm (e.g. non-fatal overdose), exposure to violence and health service utilization. Self-reported data will be supplemented with participant information from health, financial, police and government administrative databases. A longitudinal, nested, qualitative parallel process evaluation explores participant experiences, and a cost-effectiveness evaluation of different disbursement scenarios will be undertaken. Outcomes will be compared between control and intervention arms to identify the impacts of alternative disbursement schedules on drug-related harm resulting from synchronized income assistance. DISCUSSION: This structural RCT benefits from strong community partnerships, highly detailed outcome measurement, robust methods of randomization and data triangulation with third party administrative databases. The study will provide evidence regarding the potential importance of social assistance program design as a lever to support population health outcomes and service provision for populations with a high prevalence of substance use. ; Arts, Faculty of ; Medicine, Faculty of ; Other UBC ; Non UBC ; Emergency Medicine, Department of ; Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of ; Sociology, Department of ; Reviewed ; Faculty ; Unknown