Using ambulance attendances to recruit people who have experienced non-fatal heroin overdose

To trial two novel methods of recruiting people who experience non-fatal heroin overdose through the ambulance service.

Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.

In Melbourne potential participants were given numbered contact cards by ambulance paramedics after revival, while in Sydney potential participants were approached after revival by a researcher who travelled with ambulance paramedics to the overdose scene.

In Melbourne 281 cards were distributed during the period 1 June 1998-31 December 1998 and a subsequent contact rate of 24% was achieved with 14% attending a subsequent interview. In Sydney there were 170 initial contacts of which 139 (82%) answered a series of questions asked at the scene (the remainder either ineligible or incapable of answering questions) with 48 (35%) also attending for follow-up interviews.

Recruitment through contact with ambulance services is a novel method of recruiting heroin users for research into non-fatal heroin overdose with advantages over other methods of sampling for research on non-fatal heroin overdose.