First-time hospital admissions with illicit drug problems in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Western Australians: an application of record linkage to public health surveillance

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To monitor incidence rates of first-time hospital admission with an illicit drug problem in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations of Western Australia in 1980-95. METHOD: Some 10,533 first admissions among 16,294 total admissions mentioning any of 19 groups of illicit drug problems were identified using linked hospital separation data from the WA Health Services Research Linked Database. RESULTS: Trends in age-standardised rates showed two distinct features: a rapid acceleration in first-time admission rates commencing from about 1991; and a cross-over of the rates in Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In 1980, the rates were 9.2 per 100,000 PY in Indigenous and 16.4 pe..