Tobacco/nicotine harm reduction among people with a history of illicit drug use

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality globally. The prevalence of daily tobacco use among the Australian general population halved between 1991 (24%) and 2019 (11%). However, approximately 80% of Australians who inject drugs use tobacco daily. The health burden of tobacco use among people who inject drugs is poorly understood.

This study aims to better understand the experiences of people who have a history of illicit drug use with respect to current tobacco/nicotine use, the impact of tobacco use on their health, and uptake of available support to reduce or cease tobacco/nicotine use.

The study will use the Burnet SuperMIX study, a longitudinal cohort study of people who use drugs. Opportunities for quantitative research include:

·       Analysis of trends in prevalence of daily tobacco use, quantity of cigarettes smoked daily, and/or vape use.

·       Analysis of longitudinal changes in individual smoking behaviours

·       Estimation of incidence of tobacco-related chronic disease hospital admissions

·       Potential for analysis of additional datasets including VMAX (longitudinal cohort of people who use methamphetamine), PATH (longitudinal cohort study of men released from prison), Illicit Drug reporting System and Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (annual cross sectional surveys) EDRS to derive a pooled estimate of tobacco/vaping prevalence.