Cargando…

Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates

BACKGROUND: Illegal drug use and related problems have been emerging as an important public health issue in Taiwan. Via the capture-recapture approach, the present study aimed to offer insights into the size of heroin and methamphetamine male user population in the northern Taiwan during the period...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chiang, Shu-Chuan, Chen, Chuan-Yu, Chang, Yuan-Ying, Sun, Hsiao-Ju, Chen, Wei J
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2129101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17939876
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-7-292
_version_ 1782142115538534400
author Chiang, Shu-Chuan
Chen, Chuan-Yu
Chang, Yuan-Ying
Sun, Hsiao-Ju
Chen, Wei J
author_facet Chiang, Shu-Chuan
Chen, Chuan-Yu
Chang, Yuan-Ying
Sun, Hsiao-Ju
Chen, Wei J
author_sort Chiang, Shu-Chuan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Illegal drug use and related problems have been emerging as an important public health issue in Taiwan. Via the capture-recapture approach, the present study aimed to offer insights into the size of heroin and methamphetamine male user population in the northern Taiwan during the period from 1999 to 2002. METHODS: Annual lists of male subjects were collated from both judiciary and medical systems in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. A total of 2809, 2486, 1661, and 1440 local male illegal drug users aged 15 to 54 years were identified in Taoyuan County from 1999 to 2002, respectively. RESULTS: An estimated number of 16192, 14532, 16844, and 11783 local male methamphetamine or heroin users were found in each of the four consecutive years in the region. From 1999 to 2002, the annual prevalence rate for heroin use was 0.27% (95% CI = 0.20%, 0.38%), 0.33% (95% CI = 0.25%, 0.44%), 0.63% (95% CI = 0.44%, 0.92%), and 0.72% (95% CI = 0.54%, 0.97%), respectively, suggesting a trend of significant increase (chi-square for linear trend = 1677.76, d.f. = 3, p < 0.0001). In contrast, a decreasing trend was found for methamphetamine (2.38%, 1.91%, 2.47%, and 1.24%), with a modest rebound in 2001. The prevalence rates of illegal drug use for male residents in Taoyuan County were approximately 2–3% during this period, and the scale of problem shows no sign of diminution. CONCLUSION: By taking advantage of existing datasets that were incomplete by each alone, the approach of capture-recapture model may be ultimately considered as a tool to estimate the scale of illegal drug use problems. The population of heroin-using males apparently is stably expanding in the northern part of Taiwan in the first years of 21(st )century.
format Text
id pubmed-2129101
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2007
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-21291012007-12-11 Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates Chiang, Shu-Chuan Chen, Chuan-Yu Chang, Yuan-Ying Sun, Hsiao-Ju Chen, Wei J BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Illegal drug use and related problems have been emerging as an important public health issue in Taiwan. Via the capture-recapture approach, the present study aimed to offer insights into the size of heroin and methamphetamine male user population in the northern Taiwan during the period from 1999 to 2002. METHODS: Annual lists of male subjects were collated from both judiciary and medical systems in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. A total of 2809, 2486, 1661, and 1440 local male illegal drug users aged 15 to 54 years were identified in Taoyuan County from 1999 to 2002, respectively. RESULTS: An estimated number of 16192, 14532, 16844, and 11783 local male methamphetamine or heroin users were found in each of the four consecutive years in the region. From 1999 to 2002, the annual prevalence rate for heroin use was 0.27% (95% CI = 0.20%, 0.38%), 0.33% (95% CI = 0.25%, 0.44%), 0.63% (95% CI = 0.44%, 0.92%), and 0.72% (95% CI = 0.54%, 0.97%), respectively, suggesting a trend of significant increase (chi-square for linear trend = 1677.76, d.f. = 3, p < 0.0001). In contrast, a decreasing trend was found for methamphetamine (2.38%, 1.91%, 2.47%, and 1.24%), with a modest rebound in 2001. The prevalence rates of illegal drug use for male residents in Taoyuan County were approximately 2–3% during this period, and the scale of problem shows no sign of diminution. CONCLUSION: By taking advantage of existing datasets that were incomplete by each alone, the approach of capture-recapture model may be ultimately considered as a tool to estimate the scale of illegal drug use problems. The population of heroin-using males apparently is stably expanding in the northern part of Taiwan in the first years of 21(st )century. BioMed Central 2007-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC2129101/ /pubmed/17939876 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-7-292 Text en Copyright © 2007 Chiang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chiang, Shu-Chuan
Chen, Chuan-Yu
Chang, Yuan-Ying
Sun, Hsiao-Ju
Chen, Wei J
Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
title Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
title_full Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
title_fullStr Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
title_short Prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern Taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
title_sort prevalence of heroin and methamphetamine male users in the northern taiwan, 1999–2002: capture-recapture estimates
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2129101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17939876
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-7-292
work_keys_str_mv AT chiangshuchuan prevalenceofheroinandmethamphetaminemaleusersinthenortherntaiwan19992002capturerecaptureestimates
AT chenchuanyu prevalenceofheroinandmethamphetaminemaleusersinthenortherntaiwan19992002capturerecaptureestimates
AT changyuanying prevalenceofheroinandmethamphetaminemaleusersinthenortherntaiwan19992002capturerecaptureestimates
AT sunhsiaoju prevalenceofheroinandmethamphetaminemaleusersinthenortherntaiwan19992002capturerecaptureestimates
AT chenweij prevalenceofheroinandmethamphetaminemaleusersinthenortherntaiwan19992002capturerecaptureestimates