Work

Complications in Using Real-World Data to Study the Health of People Who Use Drugs

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: For the past two decades, the United States has suffered dramatic increases in a fatal drug overdose. Overdoses represent one major health concern facing people who use drugs, in a milieu including injection drug use-related infections. Accordingly, the use of real-world data to study drug-related harms, such as overdoses and injection drug-related infections, has become more common in the medical literature. Real-world data sources include electronic health records and administrative claims that can be leveraged to understand health needs and longitudinal health utilization patterns in specific groups of patients, including people who use drugs. Researchers developed various algorithms that use combinations of drug-related diagnosis codes for substance use disorders and overdoses. However, limited attention to date has been paid to the methodologic and ethical implications arising from the limitations of these algorithms.

Source: Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

DOI: 10.17615/rzr0-hv43

Authors: Figgatt, M.C., Marshall, S.W., Dasgupta, N., Schranz, A.J., Hincapie-Castillo, J.M., Golightly, Y.M.

Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Language: English

Topic: Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse