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Objective
To inform policy and practice, we compared socio-demographic characteristics and health needs of people leaving prison with a history of methamphetamine use and/or opioid use.
Findings/Key points
Compared to the opioid-only group, the methamphetamine-only group were: significantly more often aged <25 years; significantly more likely to identify as Indigenous; significantly less likely to have a history of prior incarceration, drug injection or overdose. A significantly lower proportion of methamphetamine-only and methamphetamine-and-opioid participants self-reported current hepatitis C infection compared to opioid-only participants. A majority of participants in all groups screened positive for current psychological distress according to the K10.
Design/methods
A cross-sectional survey of incarcerated adults administered the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test was used to identify moderate-/high-risk methamphetamine use (n = 909), opioid use (n = 115) or combined methamphetamine/opioid use (n = 356) before incarceration.
