MORTALITY RELATED TO DRUG USE IN IRAN

Background and Aim : Drug related mortality is one of the preventable causes of premature death among adults, but it is unclear to what extent drug use contributes to mortality among Iranian population. The aim of this study is describing the data sources for estimating and monitoring mortality related to drug use in Iran.Methods : For monitoring the drug-related mortality in countries, two epidemiological indicators are proposed: ‘Drug-induced deaths’ which has been defined as deaths directly caused by illegal drugs and is collected based on national statistics, and ‘mortality among drug users’ that is estimated from cohort studies. Therefore, in the first part of study the sources of national data for drug related death were studied. In the second part a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature reporting mortality among drug users in Iran was conducted. Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed Medline, and four national databases were searched on July 27, 2016. Studies were included and analyzed if they were provided data on mortality among drug users in the general population or those who were referred to drug treatment centers.Results : Death registration system and legal medicine organization in Iran record deaths due to drug use and provide annual reports, although data linkage between these two important sources of drug related deaths is not complete yet. Among a total of 25,552 records retrieved in the systematic review only 4 studies were finally included for data extraction, from which one was a community-based cohort study that provided crude, standardized, and cause specific mortality rate, and 3 other ones were conducted on arrested drug addicts, and drug users referred to treatment centersConclusion : Establishment (or strengthening) the data linkage between related national registration systems specially death registration system and legal medicine organization and reducing the underreporting of drug-induced deaths and can provide valid data for drug-induced deaths. There are more than dozen active Population-based cohort studies that have been initiated in the recent 20 years. For providing mortality data among drug users, investigators who design and conduct cohort studies should encourage to collect drug use data and publish their findings.

کلیدواژه ها:

Drug-induced deaths ، mortality ، drug users