ArticleHarm reduction journal2022
Difficulty accessing supervised consumption services during the COVID-19 pandemic among people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada.
Article in Harm reduction journal, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic impacts on the health of people who inject drugs using a novel data sharing model.AIDS (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Association between the COVID-19 pandemic and psychiatric symptoms in people with preexisting obsessive-compulsive, eating, anxiety, and mood disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of before-after studies.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Pooled it
- Use of clinic- and community-based overdose prevention services by sex workers who use drugs: findings from a community-based cohort in Vancouver, Canada (2017-2024).Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Benefits and barriers: a rapid-ethnographic study on the perspectives of potential and actual clients of Athens' drug consumption room.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Expanding supervised consumption services in rural Canada: Bridging gaps.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Using illicit drugs alone in Vancouver, Canada: a gender-based analysis.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2025Article
- Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on supervised consumption service delivery in Vancouver and Surrey, Canada from the perspective of service providers.Discover public health · 2025Article
- Perspectives of Canadian Healthcare and Harm Reduction Workers on Mobile Overdose Response Services: A Qualitative Study.Substance use & addiction journal · 2024Article
- Accessibility gaps of physical supervised consumption sites in Canada motivating the use of overdose response technology/phone based virtual overdose response services: a retrospective cohort study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2024Article
- Bridging the Gap in Harm Reduction Using Mobile Overdose Response Services (MORS) in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2024Article
- Perspectives of healthcare workers on the integration of overdose detection technologies in acute care settings.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe overdose crisis in Canada has worsened since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this trend is thought to be driven in part by closures or reduced capacity of supervised consumption services (SCS), little is known about the factors that may impede access to such services during the COVID-19 pandemic among people who use drugs. This study sought to characterize the prevalence and correlates of having difficulty accessing SCS during the COVID-19 pandemic among people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada.
methodsCross-sectional data from two open prospective cohorts of people who use drugs were collected via phone or videoconferencing interviews conducted between July 2020 and November 2020. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine factors associated with experiencing difficulty accessing SCS.
resultsAmong the 428 people who use drugs who participated in the study, 223 (54.7%) self-identified as men and the median age was 51 years (1st to 3rd quartile: 42-58). A total of 58 (13.6%) participants reported experiencing difficulty accessing SCS. In a multivariable analysis, factors positively associated with difficulty accessing SCS included daily crystal methamphetamine use (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.60; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.28-5.30), active injection drug use (AOR = 4.06; 95% CI 1.38-11.90), recent non-fatal overdose (AOR = 2.45; 95% CI 1.24-4.85), and unstable housing (AOR = 2.14; 95% CI 1.08-4.23). Age was inversely associated with the outcome (AOR = 0.96; 95% CI 0.93-0.99) in multivariable analyses. The most commonly reported reasons for experiencing difficulty accessing SCS were: COVID-19-related site closure or shortened hours (42.9%) and having to wait too long to use a site (39.3%).
conclusionsWe found that people who use drugs with markers of structural vulnerability and drug-related risk were more likely to experience difficulty accessing SCS during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings point to the need for strategies to support access to such services as part of pandemic response efforts.
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