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Evaluating multiple innovative methods of recording injecting drug use episode data among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia: The In-The-Moment-Expanded Pilot study
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Evaluating multiple innovative methods of recording injecting drug use episode data among people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia: The In-The-Moment-Expanded Pilot study

Daniel O’Keefe, Ashleigh Cara Stewart, Dylan Vella-Horne, Filip Djordjevic, Zoe Gleeson, Matthew Gill, Damian Pavlyshyn, Rebekka Petrovic, Nick Scott, Alexis Roth, …
Drug and alcohol dependence, v 287, 113299
Oct 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2026.113299
PMID: 42612333
Featured in Collection :   Drexel's Newest Publications
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2026.113299View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

drug overdose injecting drug use methodology People who inject drugs
New and innovative data collection techniques allow for more detailed understanding about the contexts of individual injecting drug use episodes. With the In-The-Moment-Expanded (ITM-Ex) study, we assessed multiple novel data collection techniques to inform public health methodologies and harm reduction interventions, particularly future drug overdose detection devices. Over a 29-day study period, 50 people who inject drugs were provided with an activity tracker and smart phone. ITM-Ex produced three data sources: 1) ecological momentary assessment (EMA) questionnaires completed after every injecting episode, 2) heart rate data collected via the activity tracker, and 3) return of two previously used needles/syringes for drug residue testing. Forty-five participants (90%) completed endline; most (n=40, 80%) retained both the study phone and activity tracker. Participants completed 1,161 EMA questionnaires (mean: 25). We estimate EMA questionnaires accounted for ≥93% of all injecting episodes. Participants wore activity trackers across an estimated 83% of all study days, or 60% of total possible hours. Of a possible 100 returned needles/syringes, participants returned 79 for drug residue testing. We successfully linked 80% (n=930) EMA questionnaires with associated heart rate data. We linked 48/79 (61%) needle/syringe samples with an associated EMA questionnaire. ITM-Ex demonstrated the effectiveness of our data collection methods both in unison and combined with each other, providing methodological guidance to other public health research. Our EMA methods proved particularly successful at capturing data, which, combined with other data, created a highly detailed dataset of unique injecting drug use episodes. •We collected and linked multiple data about individual injecting drug use episodes•We collected 1,161 questionnaires detailing context of injecting drug use episodes•Participants may wear an overdose detection device during most of drug use episodes•Results demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness of innovative methodologies•Results provide guidance for many other public health research projects

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