Psychometric properties of measures of substance use: a systematic review and meta-analysis of reliability, validity and diagnostic test accuracy.

Background: Synthesis of psychometric properties of substance use measures to identify patterns of use and substance use disorders remains limited. To address this gap, we sought to systematically evaluate the psychometric properties of measures to detect substance use and misuse.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of literature on measures of substance classes associated with HIV risk (heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol) that were published in English before June 2016 that reported at least one of the following psychometric outcomes of interest: internal consistency (alpha), test-retest/inter-rater reliability (kappa), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value.

A cross-national analysis of the association between years of implementation of opioid substitution treatments and drug-related deaths in Europe from 1995 to 2013.

Data at the individual-level provide evidence that opioid substitution treatment (OST) programs protect against mortality for opioid dependent populations. Prior research has not examined the merits of national implementation of opioid substitution programs for reducing mortality at the country-level. This study elucidates longitudinal associations between country-level implementation of opioid substitution treatment programs on mortality rates of drug related deaths (DRD) from 1995 to 2013 in 30 European nations.

A longitudinal examination of factors associated with social support satisfaction among HIV-positive young Black men who have sex with men.

This study examined the long-term predictors of social support satisfaction among HIV-positive young Black men who have sex with men (YBMSM). Data were collected across three waves between October 2012 and November 2014 as part of the baseline assessment from Project nGage, a preliminary efficacy randomized control study examining the role of social support in improving HIV care among YBMSM. The sample included 92 YBMSM aged 18-29.

A cross-national analysis of the effects of methadone maintenance and needle and syringe program implementation on incidence rates of HIV in Europe from 1995 to 2011.

Although many studies have found an association between harm reduction interventions and reductions in incidence rates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, scant research explores the effects of harm reduction cross-nationally. This study used a year- and country-level fixed effects model to estimate the potential effects of needle-and-syringe programs (NSPs) and methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) on incidence rates of HIV in the general population and among people who inject drugs (PWID), in a sample of 28 European nations. After adjusting for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and total expenditures on healthcare, we identified significant associations between years of MMT and NSP implementation and lower incidence rates of HIV among PWID and the general population.