Introduction
In 1998, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) published the first
edition of Assessing Drug Abuse Within and Across Communities: Community
Epidemiology Surveillance Networks on Drug Abuse to share information on
establishing drug abuse epidemiology networks at community and State
levels. The first edition was widely distributed and well received, with
ongoing requests for a reprint of the publication. However, it was clear that an
update and not a reprint would be of most value to the fields of drug abuse
epidemiology, research, and intervention. Since 1998, the expansion of the
Internet has greatly enhanced access to relevant drug abuse information.
Also, since 1998, there have been substantial changes in drug abuse data
sources used by epidemiology networks. This second edition addresses these
changes, but the purpose of this edition remains the same: to provide
guidelines for establishing epidemiology networks to monitor and assess drug
abuse patterns and trends and emerging drug problems at community and
State levels to provide a foundation of information for public health response.
NIDA's Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research has
continued to support epidemiology networks, including the Community
Epidemiology Work Group (CEWG) consisting of 21 sentinel metropolitan
areas, the Border Epidemiology Work Group in coordination with the
Ministry of Health of Mexico, and State Epidemiology Work Groups.
International epidemiology networks, modeled after the CEWG, often present
data at CEWG meetings on drug abuse patterns and trends in other nations.
Years of experience with these groups are testimony to the contributions of
epidemiology work groups in advising public health response in our Nation as
well as other countries.
This second edition differs from the first in format. For each data source,
there is a description of the source and database, followed by guidelines on
how to access the data (including Web sites) and what to request, and
examples of how the data have been used by epidemiology work groups or
Federal agencies. NIDA hopes that this revised guide is helpful to agencies,
organizations, and researchers that are involved in or wish to establish
epidemiology networks in their communities or States.
Table of Contents (minimized)
- Part I. Community Epidemiology Surveillance Networks on Drug Abuse
- Part II. Accessing and Analyzing Data from Different Sources
- 1. Survey Data
- 2. Drug Abuse Treatment Data
- 3. Drug Abuse-Related Hospital Data
- 4. Drug-Related Mortality Data
- 5. Other Drug-Related Health Data
- 6. Law Enforcement/Criminal Justice System Data
- 7. Qualitative Research Studies
- 8. Other Useful Data Sources
- Part III. Networking and Reporting
- 9. Establishing and Developing Relationships with Information Sources
- 10. Reporting
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