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Older drug users at greater risk

Older intravenous drug users, and particularly men, are more likely to die from drug-related causes than their younger counterparts, as reported by researchers.

Older drug users at greater risk

Older intravenous drug users, and particularly men, are more likely to die from drug-related causes than their younger counterparts, as reported by researchers. In a study of deaths linked to drugs in Scotland, there were 292 and 332 drug-related deaths in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Of the 332 people who died in 2001, 65 were of female sex, 80 were younger than 25 years, and 112 were older than 34 years. On the basis of these figures, from Scotland, researchers from the Scottish Center for Infection and Environmental Health, assessed the effect of region, sex, and age group on drug-related deaths in Scotland per 1000 population or per 100 injectable drug users. The drug-related death-rate in injectable drug users was higher in male than female drug users. Men were intrinsically at higher risk than women of drug-related death, because they have poor venous access, and with greater recourse to intramuscular injection, it might mean that they absorb drugs more slowly and are therefore more protected against overdose than men. Also female injectable drug users were younger than their male counterparts, with shorter histories of drug abuse. Older and male injectable drug users were at highest risk of drug-related death. They found that drug users over 34 years old were between two and six times more likely die as a result of their habit than younger than 25 years.

This study underlines the call on the “Misuse of Drugs for international research” on drug-related deaths and injectable drug users and other problem drug users' risk factors for drug-related death. Researchers need to look carefully at the role of modifiable risk factors, such as imprisonment, living or injecting alone, and risk perception.

The Lancet, Sept 2003, Vol. 362 (9388)
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