ArticleCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2008
The cost-effectiveness of Vancouver's supervised injection facility.
Article in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Economic Evaluations of Establishing Opioid Overdose Prevention Centers in 12 North American Cities: A Systematic Review.Value in health : the journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research · 2024Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Simulation Models to Track and Address the Opioid Crisis.Epidemiologic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Public Health and Public Order Outcomes Associated with Supervised Drug Consumption Facilities: a Systematic Review.Current HIV/AIDS reports · 2017Pooled it
- Needle syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy for preventing hepatitis C transmission in people who inject drugs.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- A systematic review of modelling approaches in economic evaluations of health interventions for drug and alcohol problems.BMC health services research · 2016Pooled it
- Cost effectiveness of hepatitis C-related interventions targeting substance users and other high-risk groups: a systematic review.PharmacoEconomics · 2012Pooled it
- Perception and Correlates of Opioid Overdose Risk Among Overdose Survivors Who Use Nonprescribed Opioids in San Francisco and Boston.Substance use & addiction journal · 2024Trial
- County by county estimation of possible deaths averted, infections averted, and cost savings of overdose prevention centers in the United States from July 2019-June 2025.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- County by county estimation of possible deaths averted, infections averted, and cost savings of overdose prevention centers in the United States from July 2019-June 2025.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Characterizing changes to harm reduction site operations in British Columbia following the implementation of the decriminalization of drugs: Findings from a provincial survey.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Moral foundations underpinning attitudes toward supervised consumption services across Canada's prairie provinces.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Finding the Context of High-Risk Behavioral Factors and the Effectiveness of Addiction Treatment Centers in Preventing the Transmission of Hepatitis C Virus Among Injecting Drug Addicts: "Southeastern Iran".Health science reports · 2025Article
- Cost-Effectiveness of HIV Prevention Strategies: A Systematic Review of Economic Evaluations.HIV/AIDS (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Review
- Modeling the impact of a supervised consumption site on HIV and HCV transmission among people who inject drugs in three counties in California, USA.The International journal on drug policy · 2024Article
- Overdose prevention centres as spaces of safety, trust and inclusion: A causal pathway based on a realist review.Drug and alcohol review · 2024Review
- Economic evaluation of the effect of needle and syringe programs on skin, soft tissue, and vascular infections in people who inject drugs: a microsimulation modelling approach.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- Cost-effectiveness of drug consumption rooms in France: a modelling study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Responding to the US opioid crisis: leveraging analytics to support decision making.Health care management science · 2023Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe cost-effectiveness of Canada's only supervised injection facility has not been rigorously evaluated. We estimated the impact of the facility on survival, rates of HIV and hepatitis C virus infection, referral to methadone maintenance treatment and associated costs.
methodsWe simulated the population of Vancouver, British Columbia, including injection drug users and persons infected with HIV and hepatitis C virus. The model used a time horizon of 10 years and the perspective of the health care system. We compared the situation of the supervised injection facility with one that had no facility but that had other interventions, such as needle-exchange programs. The effects considered were decreased needle sharing, increased use of safe injection practices and increased referral to methadone maintenance treatment. Outcomes included life-years gained, costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios discounted at 5% per year.
resultsFocusing on the base assumption of decreased needle sharing as the only effect of the supervised injection facility, we found that the facility was associated with an incremental net savings of almost $14 million and 920 life-years gained over 10 years. When we also considered the health effect of increased use of safe injection practices, the incremental net savings increased to more than $20 million and the number of life-years gained to 1070. Further increases were estimated when we considered all 3 health benefits: the incremental net savings was more than $18 million and the number of life-years gained 1175. Results were sensitive to assumptions related to injection frequency, the risk of HIV transmission through needle sharing, the frequency of safe injection practices among users of the facility, the costs of HIV-related care and of operating the facility, and the proportion of users who inject in the facility.
interpretationVancouver's supervised injection site is associated with improved health and cost savings, even with conservative estimates of efficacy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.