Release Date
Geography
Language of Resource
Full Text Available
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Peer Reviewed
Objective
This study aimed to assess the impact of the implementation of legally sanctioned supervised consumption sites (SCS) in the Canadian province of Ontario on opioid-related deaths, emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalisations at the public health unit (PHU) level.
Findings/Key points
Twenty-one legally sanctioned SCS were implemented across nine PHUs in Ontario during the study period. Interrupted time series analyses showed no statistically significant changes in opioid-related death rates in aggregated analyses of intervention PHUs. Control PHUs saw a significant increase of 0.38 deaths/100,000 population/month. No statistically significant changes were observed in the rates of opioid-related ED visits in intervention PHUs or controls. No statistically significant changes to the rates of opioid-related hospitalisations were observed in intervention PHUs or controls. This study did not find significant mortality or morbidity effects associated with SCS availability at the population level in Ontario.
Design/methods
Monthly rates per 100,000 population of opioid-related deaths, ED visits and hospitalisations for PHUs in Ontario between December 2013 and March 2022 were collected. Aggregated and individual analyses of PHUs with one or more SCS were conducted, with PHUs that instituted an SCS being matched to control units that did not. Autoregressive integrated moving average models were used to estimate the impact of SCS implementation on opioid-related deaths, ED visits and hospitalisations.
