Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Prescription opioids (POs) misuse has become an emerging public health concern globally. Canada is the second-highest PO consuming country in the world and has an estimated 500,000 - 1.25 million people using POs non-medically. PO misuse can result in serious health harms such as addiction, overdose, and death. It can also bring a tremendous burden for health-care system (e.g., emergency department visits, addiction treatments). Studies have found that PO misuse has become increasingly common among people who use illicit drugs, and these people are more likely to experience prescription opioid misuse related harms including elevated risk of HIV or HCV infection, reluctance to engage with addiction treatments, and developing riskier drug use behaviors. Previous qualitative and cross-sectional studies in U.S. have demonstrated the rising prevalence of transition to injection drug use among PO misusers. However, the knowledge of PO misuse among illicit drug users is still fragmented, insufficient, and is not thoroughly studied in a Canadian setting. Therefore, this work aims to characterize the complex risk profiles of PO misusers and explore the unique impact of PO misuse on injection drug use patterns among this at-risk population. Data will be collected from three ongoing CIHR- and U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded prospective cohort studies comprised of over 3200 illicit drug users in the Greater Vancouver area, Canada. The research findings will contribute to the development of more effective harm reduction interventions, health care and disease management strategies.