Award Date

12-15-2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

Community Health Sciences

First Committee Member

Sheniz Moonie

Second Committee Member

Chad Cross

Third Committee Member

Jay Shen

Fourth Committee Member

Jennifer Kawi

Number of Pages

55

Abstract

The opioid epidemic has led to a chain reaction of public health concerns, including an increase in heroin usage, injection drug abuse, incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV), and HIV transmission. There have been few population-based studies investigating the clinical and socio- demographic data associated with opioid use in Nevada (Feng et al., 2016; Frank, 2000) and few studies investigating the intravenous drug user (IDU) population in Clark County. On February 2017, Clark County’s first syringe exchange program (SEP) opened its doors to the IDU population. This study provides an updated analysis of opioid-related injuries within Nevada and provides a first-time analysis of the IDU population within Clark County. According to the 2017 Center of Health Information Analysis (CHIA), there were 9,064 opioid-related injuries in the state of Nevada. The most common comorbidities associated with opioid-related injuries were chronic bodily pains (50.2%), malnutrition (47.3%), nicotine dependence (44.7%), affective disorders (32.4%), and hypertension (28.8%). There was a higher proportion of 18-35 year olds who used SEPs as compared to 18-35 year olds who used hospitals. One Clark County zip code had both high frequencies for opioid-related hospitalizations and injection drug use. In order to implement interventions and programs to battle the opioid epidemic and the consequent public health effects, we must first understand the associations between opioid-related hospitalizations and the IDU population.

Keywords

Heroin; HIV/HCV Transmission; Intravenous Drug Users; Opioid-Related Hospitalizations; Opioids; Syringe Exchange Program (SEP)

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Public Health

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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