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Indicators of progress: Definitions, data, baseline and trends information

Milestone 25: Reducing the incidence of drug misuse in general and of injecting and sharing of needles in particular

Indicators

The incidence of drug misuse among young people (12-15 year olds) is obtained from the national surveys of Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in Scotland. The incidence of drug misuse among 16-24 and 25-59 year olds is obtained from the Scottish Crime Surveys. The use of opiates and benzodiazepams among 15-54 year olds is presented here from a study to estimate the prevalence of problem drug misuse in Scotland which reported at the end of 2001. Information on injecting drug use and the sharing of needles comes from the Scottish Drug Misuse Database, managed by the Information and Statistics Division (ISD) of the National Health Service in Scotland.

Availability of data

Information on the use of drugs by 12-15 year olds was first collected in the Office for National Statistics national survey: Smoking, drinking and drug use among young teenagers in 1998. Figures for 2000 were obtained from the National Centre for Social Research and the National Foundation for Educational Research national survey: Smoking, drinking & drug use among young people in Scotland in 2000. The Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit (CAHRU) of the University of Edinburgh will be publishing the summary national results of the next in this series, Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS) 2002 by December 2002, with the full national report anticipated in September 2003.

The Scottish Crime Survey is a household survey which was conducted in 1993, 1996 and 2000. The information presented here covers the age groups 16-24 and 25-59. It should be noted that the survey excludes certain groups of the population including homeless persons and those in prison, hospitals and other residential establishments. In addition, it is important to bear in mind the relatively small sample size and the sensitive nature of the subject matter when interpreting these figures.

The results from a national prevalence study provide a new and valuable source of information on the level of drug use in Scotland. The study was carried out by the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow, in conjunction with the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH). The study utilises the capture-recapture methodology and uses a variety of data sources to provide prevalence estimates of problem drug use. Figures are presented here for 2000. Another prevalence study will be carried out in 2003.

Information on the proportion of 'new problem drug misusers' injecting and sharing injecting equipment is available from ISD through the Scottish Drug Misuse Database. Information for 2000/01 has been updated. Information for 2001/02 will be available early in 2003.

Drug misuse among 12-15 year olds

Table 25a shows the reported use of drugs by 12-15 year olds in 1998 and 2000 from the national surveys. The percentage who had used drugs 'in the last month' remained constant at 10%. The percentage who had 'ever' used drugs decreased slightly from 18% in 1998 to 17% in 2000. Neither of these changes are statistically significant.

Table 25a: Reported use of drugs by 12-15 year olds (1998 and 2000)

Source: Smoking, drinking and drug use among teenagers in 1998 (Office for National Statistics); Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in Scotland in 2000 (National Centre for Social research & National Foundation for Educational Research

Drug misuse among 16-24 year olds and 25-59 year olds

The incidence of drug misuse among 16-24 year olds and 25-59 year olds from the Scottish Crime Surveys is shown in Table 25b. The figures show a decrease in reported drug use 'in the last 12 months' for males from 33% in 1996 to 17% in 2000. As noted previously, care should be taken when interpreting the figures from this survey, due to the small sample sizes involved.

Table 25b: Reported drug use 'in the last 12 months' - adults aged 16-59 years Prevalence of opiate & benzodiazepam misuse

Source: 1993, 1996 and 2000 Scottish Crime Surveys

The national prevalence study Estimating the national and local prevalence of problem drug misuse in Scotland found that, in 2000, an estimated 55,800 individuals aged between 15 and 54 years were misusing opiates or benzodiazepams within Scotland (95% confidence interval of 43,664 to 78,443). This represents around 2% of the population (95% confidence interval of 1.5% to 2.7%). In general the male to female ratio for problematic misuse was 3:1.

Levels of drug injecting and sharing

Table 25c shows the percentage of 'new problem drug misusers' attending services who reported injecting in the past month and of these, the percentage who reported sharing injecting equipment in the past month. It is important to remember that these figures represent people attending services and therefore can not be considered to represent all drug users. A drug user is defined as 'new' if he/she is attending a particular agency for the first time, or has had a gap of at least six months since their last attendance. The percentage of new problem drug users attending treatment services who reported injecting in the previous month has remained fairly steady over the last few years at around 39%. Of these, 34% reported sharing equipment in the previous month. This has remained steady over the last three years.

Table 25c: Percentage of 'new problem drug misusers' attending services who reported injecting and sharing behaviour

Source : Scottish Drug Misuse Database

Note : In 1999/00 , for the first time, the figures excluded data from needle exchanges (to improve the validity of comparisons between health board and local authority areas). The 1998/99 data was also revised to exclude the needle exchange information.

(1) Clients who reported having 'injected in the past month
(2) Data not available from non-medical services in Ayrshire and Arran, for the 6 months to end March 2001.
(3) Data have been revised

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