Further Development of the Monitoring System

The project aimed to improve and further develop the drug related monitoring in Austria. Several sources of data were analysed as regard to the potential epidemiological use and proposals for increased usefulness and quality of the data collected were drawn up.

The analysis focussed on the data of the 'Register of drug offences' (reports from police, public health officers, courts etc.) held by the FMSSG, the monitoring of substitution treatment as well as drug related deaths and the ICD-9 hospital discharge diagnosis. In a first step the coverage and quality of the data available was checked.

Based on the analysis, proposals for improve-ment of data quality as well as for annual routine analysis have been elaborated. The project also included prevalence estimates of problem drug use (in co-operation with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Addiction Research) and the development of a standardised form for recording of forensic information on drug related fatalities.

Commissioned by: Federal Ministry of Health and Women
Contact: Martin Busch, busch(at)goeg.at
Comleted: December 2003