Mortality of registered drug users in Central Asia
Language English Country Netherlands Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PubMed
24935888
DOI
10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.03.007
PII: S0955-3959(14)00068-1
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- Keywords
- Central Asia, Drug users, Heroin, Mortality, Narcological register, Standardised mortality ratio,
- MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Substance-Related Disorders mortality MeSH
- Registries statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Sex Factors MeSH
- Drug Users statistics & numerical data MeSH
- Age Distribution MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Male MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Geographicals
- Kazakhstan epidemiology MeSH
- Uzbekistan epidemiology MeSH
BACKGROUND: Within the fifth phase of the Central Asia Drug Action Programme (CADAP) covering five post-Soviet Central Asian countries, an analysis of the mortality of drug users was performed. The results for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are presented in detail in this paper since results from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are not considered valid and Turkmenistan did not provide data at all. METHODS: A system of registration of all users of illegal drugs known to the health and/or law enforcement authorities ("narcological registers") exists in Central Asian countries inherited from the system of Soviet "narcology". According to the legal norms, the death of a registered person should be recorded. We conducted indirect standardisation of crude mortality rates and computed the standardised mortality ratio (SMR) comparing observed number of deaths with expected number of deaths according to age and gender specific mortality rates in the general population of the same country. RESULTS: The results show excess mortality in registered drug users, particularly in registered females, in Uzbekistan (the latest available SMR for all those registered is 7.4; the SMR in females is 16.3) and Kazakhstan (4.0 and 12.9). The excess mortality is highest among young adults (18-34) in all the studies. CONCLUSION: Taking into account the limited quality and reliability of the data - first of all, the likely under-reporting of deaths in the narcological registers - the crude mortality rate among registered drug users is quite high when compared to EU countries. The SMR in total is comparably lower as a result of the high background mortality in the general population. This excess mortality is preventable and should be targeted by the national drug policies. Specifically, the programmes should target registered and unregistered female drug users.
Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan Uzbekistan
National Center for Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Tajikistan
National Center for Monitoring and Prevention of Drug Addiction Tajikistan
National Research Center on Medical and Social Problems of Drug Addiction Kazakhstan
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