A drug consumption room/overdose prevention centre is a healthcare facility where individuals can use drugs, obtained elsewhere, and are supervised by another person. They can prevent overdose deaths, improve health and wellbeing, and support access to healthcare. Often overdose prevention centres are proposed as a function of rising overdose events, overdose deaths, and bloodborne virus risk, but there are other challenges, e.g. drug related litter or ambulance call outs which may need to change to evidence effectiveness. Outcomes should have relevance to practitioners, policymakers, commissioners, people who use drugs and healthcare professionals if the findings are to influence good practice in service, understand the utility of the service, and create an evidence base. We aim to develop a COS to improve and standardise the evaluation of OPCs, improve evaluation conduct, reduce selective reporting, and increase the ability to synthesise evidence. We will create a long list of outcomes used to test OPC effectiveness from recent evidence reviews; we will build consensus using an international e-Delphi, and we will conduct a consensus meeting to finalise what to measure and how to measure it (supplemented with psychometric and measurement evaluation). A protocol is in production using COS-STAP, and the COS will be reported using COS-STAR guidance. We will illustrate all steps of the COS with open science.
There are no COS currently registered or underway in relation to the topic area or intervention type. The closest to these may be in the area of opioids e.g. https://www.cometinitiative.org/Studies/Details/1128 https://www.cometinitiative.org/Studies/Details/1579 or https://www.cometinitiative.org/Studies/Details/476 but it is neither treatment nor managing opioid dependence, although many of the clients will be using opioids. Another reflects multiple drug treatment https://www.cometinitiative.org/Studies/Details/1185 but again overdose prevention centres are not designed as treatment facilities. Others’ which are more public health in nature such as https://www.cometinitiative.org/Studies/Details/2364 have some shared features, but overdose prevention centres are not socially prescribed or https://www.cometinitiative.org/Studies/Details/957 which describes outcomes for alcohol, however, alcohol is typically not implicated in overdose prevention centre outcomes nor is a target of the intervention.
To develop a core outcome set to demonstrate effectiveness of drug consumption rooms/overdose prevention centres
ContributorsDr Gillian W Shorter Queen's University Belfast co-PI
Professor Alex Stevens, University of Kent co-PI
Professor Peter Vickerman, University of Bristol
Dr Zarnie Khadjesari, University of East Anglia
Dr Anne Campbell, Queen's University Belfast
Mat Southwell, EuroNPUD and Coact
Lyn Jefferys, EuroNPUD and Coact
Professor Alex Kral, RTI International
Disease Category: Tobacco, drugs, & alcohol dependence
Disease Name: Drug use
Age Range: 18
Sex: Either
Nature of Intervention: Management of care
- Charities
- Clinical experts
- Consumers (patients)
- Economists
- Epidemiologists
- Ethicists
- Families
- Governmental agencies
- Journal editors
- Methodologists
- Patient/ support group representatives
- Policy makers
- Researchers
- Service commissioners
- Service providers
- Service users
- Statisticians
- COS for clinical trials or clinical research
- COS for practice
- Consensus meeting
- Delphi process
- Literature review
We will create a long list of outcomes used to test OPC effectiveness from recent evidence reviews; we will build consensus using an international e-Delphi, and we will conduct a consensus meeting to finalise what to measure and how to measure it (supplemented with psychometric and measurement evaluation). A protocol is in production using COS-STAP, and the COS will be reported using COS-STAR guidance. We will illustrate all steps of the COS development with open science.