ReviewDrug and alcohol review2022
Health service utilisation and access for people who inject drugs during COVID-19.
Review in Drug and alcohol review, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Preliminary Efficacy of a Theory-Informed Intervention to Increase COVID-19 Testing Uptake Among People Who Inject Drugs in San Diego County: Findings From a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2023Trial
- Changes in Drug-Induced Hospitalisations and Deaths During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
- Disproportionate, differential and targeted treatment: people who use drugs' experiences of policing during the COVID-19 pandemic.Health & justice · 2025Article
- The impact of Covid-19 on harm reduction policies in Iran: an interrupted time series analysis.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Navigating the COVID-19 Risk Environment, Overdose Prevention, and Self Care Practices of People Who Use Illicit Opioids in New York City.Substance use & misuse · 2025Article
- Structural and social changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on engagement in substance use disorder treatment services: a qualitative study among people with a recent history of injection drug use in Baltimore, Maryland.Harm reduction journal · 2024Article
- "Shared experience makes this all possible": documenting the guiding principles of peer-led services for people released from prison.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Epidemiology of acute infections in people who inject drugs in Australia.Drug and alcohol review · 2024Review
- Using health belief model constructs to understand the role of perceived disease threat and resilience in responding to COVID-19 among people who use drugs: a cluster analysis.Advances in drug and alcohol research · 2024Article
- Changes to methadone maintenance therapy in the United States, Canada, and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2023Review
- Qualitative insights on alcohol and other drug consumption during COVID-19.Drug and alcohol review · 2022Article
- Impact of COVID-19 among people who use drugs: A qualitative study with harm reduction workers and people who use drugs.Harm reduction journal · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe wide-spread implementation of interventions to limit transmission and public health consequences of COVID-19 in the Australian state of Victoria had flow-on consequences for people who use and inject drugs. Consequences included the interruption of illicit drug supply and drug procurement, and the disruption to the delivery of health services. To inform strategies that can minimise the adverse outcomes of similar future disruptive events, this study explored how COVID-19 restrictions impacted access to harm reduction and drug treatment services for people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Victoria.
methodsQualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted via an online calling app, with 11 participants of a broader cohort study (the SuperMIX study) in April 2020. Interviews were focused on participants experiences of accessing and using harm reduction and drug treatment services. Data were thematically analysed using a process of blended coding.
resultsFindings revealed how disruptions in the delivery of harm reduction and drug treatment services-in response to COVID-19 restrictions-created barriers accessing sterile injecting equipment, increased risk of arrest by police and exacerbated social isolation. Participants reported difficulties adapting to changes in services access, with some increases in injecting risk behaviours. However, improvements in opioid agonist therapy prescriptions were noted as a beneficial outcome. DISCUSSION: By examining the impacts of COVID-19 and the resultant restrictions on people who inject drugs' access to health services in Melbourne, Victoria, findings provide guidance for future responses to the unanticipated large-scale effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and similar disruptive events.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.