Routine health surveillance data: a retrospective longitudinal analysis of opioid addiction treatment among older adults

Project Title: Routine health surveillance data: a retrospective longitudinal analysis of opioid addiction treatment among older adults. Ms Anne Marie Carew, PhD candidate with Professor Catherine Comiskey

Anne Marie Carew BSc, MSc (Statistics)  is currently  a Research Officer within the National Health Information Systems (promotion) Unit at the Health Research Board, Dublin Ireland.

Historically issues relating to problem substance use among older people have received little attention, and these issues have only recently been recognised.  This research aims to provide a retrospective longitudinal analysis of an EU designed national drug treatment monitoring system to inform current international policy questions relating to ageing and substance misuse. National data will be analysed to investigate how the ageing opioid treatment population has changed over a 21 year period. The study will

• analyse and describe the changing demographics and risk patterns,
• analyse the pattern of early versus late onset opioid substance users as identified by the literature,
• investigate the emergence of prescription opiates, and
• model existing treatment discharge data, given client demographics, treatment interventions and time.