The uses of an epidemiology of drug use: the Canadian scene.

Abstract

Epidemiology began as the science of epidemics originally investigating the source, spread, and control of communicable diseases (Rogers, 1965). This remains an important function in many parts of the world, but in North America more attention is given to epidemiological studies of noncommunicable diseases. A further novelty is the application of epidemiological methods to behavioral pathologies such as mental illness, drug abuse, and drug use in which physical illness is a minor element. Broadly speaking, epidemiology is “the study of all factors (and their interdependence) that affect the occurrence and course of health and disease in a population” (Rogers, 1965). It is this broader definition into which current studies of drug use fit since they only rarely bear upon disease or pathology. Such studies have been, at times, concerned with the incidence of drug use— the number of new users during some given period of time (usually 6 months or 1 year) — but mainly they have attempted to produced estimates ...