The relationship between COVID-19 and opioid-related emergency department visits in Alberta, Canada:an interrupted time series analysis
Abstract
Abstract Introduction: Emergency departments (EDs) are important health care access points for people who use drugs (PWUD), but little is known about whether the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with changes in opioid-related emergency presentations. We investigated whether (1) the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with any change in average rates of opioid-related ED visits in Alberta; and (2) this varied across regions with different COVID-19 case rates. Methods: We conducted maximum-likelihood interrupted time series analyses to compare opioid-related ED visits during the “prepandemic period” (3 March 2019–1 March 2020) and the “pandemic period” (2 March 2020–14 March 2021). Results: There were 8883 and 11 657 opioid-related ED visits during the prepandemic and pandemic periods, respectively. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an increase in opioid-related ED visits (Edmonton: IRR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.30–1.44, p < 0.05; Calgary: IRR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07–1.20, p < 0.05; Other health zones: IRR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07–1.21, p < 0.05). Changing COVID-19 case counts did not correspond with changing rates of opioid-related ED visits across regions. Conclusion: The increase in opioid-related ED visits associated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was unrelated to COVID-19 case prevalence in Alberta.
Read the paper
Related studies
- The Matrisome: In Silico Definition and In Vivo Characterization by Proteomics of Normal and Tumor Extracellular Matrices
- The Escherichia coli MG1655 in silico metabolic genotype: Its definition, characteristics, and capabilities
- In silico pharmacology for drug discovery: methods for virtual ligand screening and profiling
- In silico prediction of splice-altering single nucleotide variants in the human genome
- In silico clinical trials: how computer simulation will transform the biomedical industry
- In silico optimization of a guava antimicrobial peptide enables combinatorial exploration for peptide design
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.