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Table 1 Summary of variables collected at baseline interview

From: Establishing the Melbourne injecting drug user cohort study (MIX): rationale, methods, and baseline and twelve-month follow-up results

Area of interest

Variables collected

Details

Demographic and social characteristics

Gender

1Questions from the criminality section of the Opiate Treatment Index (OTI) were used to measure prevalence of property crime, violent crime, drug dealing and fraud in the past month

Date of birth

Education status

Employment history

Income

Current living circumstances

Country of birth

Language spoken at home

Indigenous status

Criminal activity (including OTI1)

Incarceration history

Dug use characteristics

Age at injecting initiation

2The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was developed by the World Health Organisation as a brief assessment tool to identify hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption, focussing primarily on symptoms occurring in the recent past

Pattern of drug use at injecting initiation

Alcohol use (AUDIT2)

Drug use history

Current drug use

Drug market access and purchase characteristics

Drug treatment history

Social networks

Health and social functioning

Height

3The Short-Form 8 (SF-8) assesses physical and mental health over the past month based on questions covering eight domains: physical functioning, role limitations due to physical health, bodily pain, general health perceptions, vitality, social functioning, role limitations due to emotional problems, and mental health.

Weight

Chronic health conditions

Physical and mental health (SF-83)

Quality of life (PWI4)

4The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) uses an 11-point Likert scale to measure quality of life according to eight domains: standard of living, health, achieving in life, relationships, safety, community-connectedness, future security, and spirituality/religion.

BBV testing history and current status

Risk of BBV infection (BBV-TRAQ-SV5)

Drug overdose history

5The Blood Borne Virus Transmission Risk Assessment Questionnaire Short Version (BBV-TRAQ-SV) measures participation in high-risk practices for the transmission of blood-borne viruses. It consists of 15 items relating to needle and syringe contamination, other injecting equipment sharing, and second person contamination.

Health service utilisation

Type of services attended

 

(e.g. hospital, GP, PWID PHC clinic)

Frequency of service attendance

Reasons for attendance (drug-related, other)

Costs incurred for attendance