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Self-report among injecting drug users: a review
1National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
|October 27, 1998
Summary
Self-reports from people who use drugs are reliable and valid for understanding drug use, related problems, and their history. This review confirms their accuracy compared to biomarkers and criminal records.
Area of Science:
- Addiction research
- Public health
- Criminology
Background:
- Behavioral self-reports are common in illicit drug use studies.
- Concerns exist regarding the accuracy of these self-reports.
- Injecting drug users' data is often collected via self-reporting.
Purpose of the Study:
- Critically review literature on the reliability and validity of self-reported data.
- Assess self-reported drug use, criminality, and HIV risk-taking.
- Evaluate the trustworthiness of self-reported behaviors in this population.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of existing studies.
- Comparison of self-reported data with objective measures (biomarkers, criminal records).
- Analysis of collateral interviews for validation.
Main Results:
- Self-reported behaviors demonstrate respectable reliability and validity.
- Comparisons with biomarkers, criminal records, and collateral interviews support accuracy.
- Evidence suggests self-reports are dependable for describing drug use patterns.
Conclusions:
- Self-reported drug use, criminality, and HIV risk-taking are sufficiently reliable and valid.
- These self-reports provide accurate descriptions of drug use and related problems.
- The natural history of drug use can be reliably studied using self-reported data.