Can the use of psychoactive drugs in the general adult population be estimated based on data from a roadside survey of drugs and driving?

Gjerde, Hallvard; Normann, Per T.; Mørland, Jörg

doi:10.5324/nje.v21i1.1425

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…As expected [4,28], the younger employees had a higher alcohol consumption than the older employees, but medicinal drug use was more frequent among older employees than among younger employees. Similar results have been reported by Skretting et al , Gjerde et al and Nesvåg and Lie [13,15,16]. Self-reported in-efficiency or hangover at work due to alcohol during the past 12 months was more frequent among the age group below 40 years and among employees with higher educational level, and the results were consistent with data published by Storvoll et al [17].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Use of alcohol and drugs among health professionals in Norway: a study using data from questionnaires and samples of oral fluid

Edvardsen

Karinen

Moan³

et al. 2014

Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology

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Working under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol may affect safety and job performance. However, the size of this possible problem among health professionals (HPs) is unknown. The aim of this study was threefold: (i) to analyze samples of oral fluid and self-reported data from questionnaires to investigate the prevalence of alcohol and drugs among a sample of HPs in Norway, (ii) to study self-reported absence from or impairment at work due to alcohol and/or drug use, and (iii) to examine whether such use and absence/impairment due to such use depend on socio-demographic variables.A total of 916 of the 933 invited HPs from hospitals and pharmacies participated in the study (participation rate = 98.2%), and 81.1% were women. Associations were analyzed in bi-variate cross tables with Chi-square statistics to assess statistical significance.Alcohol was not detected in any of the samples. Ethyl glucuronide, a specific alcohol metabolite, was found in 0.3% of the collected samples. Illicit drugs and medicinal drugs were identified in 0.6% and 7.3% of the samples, respectively. Both analytical results and self-reported use of alcohol and drugs during the past 12 months indicate that recent and past year alcohol and drug use was lower among HPs than among workers in other business areas in Norway, Europe and US. Nevertheless, several HPs reported absence from work due to alcohol (0.9%) and medicinal drug use (0.8%) during the past 12 months. A substantial part (16.7%) of the self-reported medicinal drug users reported absence from work because of use of medicinal drugs during the past 12 months, and more than 1/4 of those reported in-efficiency at work because of the use of medicinal drugs during the past 12 months. Reduced efficiency at work due to alcohol use during the past 12 months was reported by 12.2%.This sample of HPs seldom used illicit drugs, few had a high level of alcohol consumption, and few tested positive for medicinal drugs. Absence or hangover related to the use of medicinal drugs or alcohol appeared to be a bigger issue than the acute intoxication or the use of illicit drugs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Use of alcohol and drugs among health professionals in Norway: a study using data from questionnaires and samples of oral fluid

Edvardsen

Karinen

Moan³

et al. 2014

Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology

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“…Under-reporting is not unexpected in the survey questionnaires because the subject was drug use and the level of response was low, but this discrepancy may be even larger than is immediately apparent from the present study. An earlier roadside study49 found that the use of medicinal drugs was underestimated by 17–59% when using data from a survey of drivers compared with actually dispensed amounts in the studied area. For the use of cannabis the results from a roadside survey were similar to self-reported data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Estimation of cocaine consumption in the community: a critical comparison of the results from three complimentary techniques

et al. 2012

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ObjectivesA range of approaches are now available to estimate the level of drug use in the community so it is desirable to critically compare results from the differing techniques. This paper presents a comparison of the results from three methods for estimating the level of cocaine use in the general population.DesignThe comparison applies to; a set of regional-scale sample survey questionnaires, a representative sample survey on drug use among drivers and an analysis of the quantity of cocaine-related metabolites in sewage.Setting14 438 participants provided data for the set of regional-scale sample survey questionnaires; 2341 drivers provided oral-fluid samples and untreated sewage from 570 000 people was analysed for biomarkers of cocaine use. All data were collected in Oslo, Norway.Results0.70 (0.36–1.03) % of drivers tested positive for cocaine use which suggest a prevalence that is higher than the 0.22 (0.13–0.30) % (per day) figure derived from regional-scale survey questionnaires, but the degree to which cocaine consumption in the driver population follows the general population is an unanswered question. Despite the comparatively low-prevalence figure the survey questionnaires did provide estimates of the volume of consumption that are comparable with the amount of cocaine-related metabolites in sewage. Per-user consumption estimates are however highlighted as a significant source of uncertainty as little or no data on the quantities consumed by individuals are available, and much of the existing data are contradictory.ConclusionsThe comparison carried out in the present study can provide an excellent means of checking the quality and accuracy of the three measurement techniques because they each approach the problem from a different viewpoint. Together the three complimentary techniques provide a well-balanced assessment of the drug-use situation in a given community and identify areas where more research is needed.

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A Norwegian Study of the Suitability of Hair Samples in Epidemiological Research of Alcohol, Nicotine and Drug Use

Lund

Gjerde

Courtade

et al. 2013

Journal of Analytical Toxicology

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A feasibility study was performed to examine the effectiveness of hair testing in determining the prevalence of drug use in a young adult population. The study included 200 randomly selected young adults in Norway. It was designed to make the collection, preparation and analysis of the samples as little resource demaning as possible. Full anonymity was provided for the participants. In total, 23.5% of the samples were positive for one or more substances (14.5%, excluding the nicotine metabolite cotinine). Of the samples, 5% were positive for at least one illegal drug, 9.5% for a medicinal drug, 11.5% for cotinine and 2.5% for the alcohol metabolite ethyl glucuronide. The preliminary findings suggest that the study protocol used to collect and analyze the samples was unable to produce results that could be generalized to the young adult population in Norway. Analysis of hair samples may underestimate the use of cannabis, alcohol, amphetamine and methamphetamine. It may, however, be done to estimate cocaine and general drug use if a sample-collection procedure different from that described in our study is used and includes information about hair length, sample length, length from the scalp, cosmetic treatment, washing and whether the samples always get washed/decontaminated prior to analysis.

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Can the use of psychoactive drugs in the general adult population be estimated based on data from a roadside survey of drugs and driving?

Cited by 3 publications

References 14 publications

Use of alcohol and drugs among health professionals in Norway: a study using data from questionnaires and samples of oral fluid

Use of alcohol and drugs among health professionals in Norway: a study using data from questionnaires and samples of oral fluid

Estimation of cocaine consumption in the community: a critical comparison of the results from three complimentary techniques

A Norwegian Study of the Suitability of Hair Samples in Epidemiological Research of Alcohol, Nicotine and Drug Use

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