Implementation of risk mitigation prescribing during dual public health emergencies: A qualitative study among Indigenous people who use drugs and health planners in Northern British Columbia, Canada.

Background: In response to the dual public health emergencies of COVID-19 and the overdose crisis, the Government of British Columbia (BC) introduced risk mitigation prescribing, or prescribed safer supply. In the context of colonialism and racism, Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by substance use harms and experience significant barriers to receiving care, particularly those living in rural and remote communities. As part of a larger provincial evaluation, we sought to assess the implementation of risk mitigation prescribing as experienced by Indigenous people who use drugs (IPWUD) in Northern BC.

Population perinatal substance use and an environmental scan of health services in British Columbia, Canada.

Background: Substance use during pregnancy is underreported globally and there is limited data on its prevalence and the availability of supportive services. This study determined population perinatal substance use in British Columbia (BC) by region and examined the availability of clinical and community-based programs.

Methods: Using linked provincial health administrative data, we conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study including all BC residents accessing care for substance use (alcohol, opioids, stimulants, sedatives, and cannabis) within 12 months of first perinatal care record to delivery during 2016-2021.

Perceptions of provider awareness of traditional and cultural treatments among Indigenous people who use unregulated drugs in Vancouver, Canada.

Introduction: Indigenous people who use unregulated drugs (IPWUD) face significant barriers to care, including sparse availability of culturally safe health services. Integrating Indigenous traditional and cultural treatments (TCT) into health service delivery is one way to enhance culturally safe care. In a Canadian setting that implemented cultural safety reforms, we sought to examine the prevalence and correlates of client perceptions of primary care provider awareness of TCT among IPWUD.

Effect of Risk Mitigation Guidance opioid and stimulant dispensations on mortality and acute care visits during dual public health emergencies: retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To determine the effect of opioid and stimulant Risk Mitigation Guidance (RMG) dispensations on mortality and acute care visits during the dual public health emergencies of overdose and covid-19.

Design: Population based retrospective cohort study.

Setting: British Columbia, Canada.

Opioid agonist therapy and mortality among First Nations and other residents with concurrent alcohol use disorder in British Columbia, Canada: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Despite the prevalence of alcohol use among people with opioid use disorder (PWOUD) engaged in opioid agonist therapy (OAT), clinical care guidance for concurrent alcohol use disorder (AUD) and OUD is scarce. We assessed the prevalence and risk of mortality for concurrent AUD among PWOUD who accessed OAT in British Columbia (BC).

Methods: Data were obtained from six linked population-level health administrative datasets to identify PWOUD from January 1996 to March 2020.

Association between toxic drug events and encephalopathy in British Columbia, Canada: a cross-sectional analysis.

Background: Encephalopathy can occur from a non-fatal toxic drug event (overdose) which results in a partial or complete loss of oxygen to the brain, or due to long-term substance use issues. It can be categorized as a non-traumatic acquired brain injury or toxic encephalopathy. In the context of the drug toxicity crisis in British Columbia (BC), Canada, measuring the co-occurrence of encephalopathy and drug toxicity is challenging due to lack of standardized screening.

British Columbia's COVID-19 surveys on population experiences, action, and knowledge (SPEAK): methods and key findings from two large cross-sectional online surveys.

Objectives: To describe the methodology and key findings of British Columbia's (BC) COVID-19 SPEAK surveys, developed to understand the experiences, knowledge, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on British Columbians.

Methods: Two province-wide, cross-sectional, web-based population health surveys were conducted one year apart (May 2020 and April/May 2021). Questions were drawn from validated sources grounded within the social determinants of health to assess COVID-19 testing and prevention; mental and physical health; risk and protective factors; and healthcare, social, and economic impacts during the pandemic.

Evaluation of risk mitigation measures for people with substance use disorders to address the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and overdose in British Columbia: a mixed-method study protocol.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic was preceded by an ongoing overdose crisis and linked to escalating drug overdose deaths in British Columbia (BC). At the outset of these dual public health emergencies, the BC government announced interim Risk Mitigation Guidance (RMG) that permitted prescribing medication alternatives to substances, including opioids, alcohol, stimulants and benzodiazepines, an intervention sometimes referred to as 'safe supply'. This protocol outlines the approach for a study of the implementation of RMG and its impacts on COVID-19 infection, drug-related and systemic harms, continuity of care for people with substance use disorder (SUD), as well as their behavioural, psychosocial and well-being outcomes.

Risk of overdose-related death for people with a history of incarceration.

Background And Aims: Reported associations between previous incarceration and the risk of overdose-related death are substantially heterogeneous, and previous studies are limited by an inability to control for confounding factors in risk assessment. This study investigated the associations of overdose-related death with previous incarceration and the number or cumulative duration of previous incarcerations, and individual or neighborhood characteristics that may potentially modify the associations.

Design And Setting: A cohort study using a 20% random sample of residents in British Columbia, Canada.

Improving numeracy through values affirmation enhances decision and STEM outcomes.

Greater numeracy has been correlated with better health and financial outcomes in past studies, but causal effects in adults are unknown. In a 9-week longitudinal study, undergraduate students, all taking a psychology statistics course, were randomly assigned to a control condition or a values-affirmation manipulation intended to improve numeracy. By the final week in the course, the numeracy intervention (statistics-course enrollment combined with values affirmation) enhanced objective numeracy, subjective numeracy, and two decision-related outcomes (financial literacy and health-related behaviors).

Cigarette graphic warning labels increase both risk perceptions and smoking myth endorsement.

Objective: Cigarette graphic warning labels elicit negative emotion, which increases risk perceptions through multiple processes. We examined whether this emotion simultaneously affects motivated cognitions like smoking myth endorsement (e.g.

Cigarette Graphic Warning Labels Are Not Created Equal: They Can Increase or Decrease Smokers' Quit Intentions Relative to Text-Only Warnings.

Introduction: Cigarette graphic-warning labels elicit negative emotion. Research suggests negative emotion drives greater risk perceptions and quit intentions through multiple processes. The present research compares text-only warning effectiveness to that of graphic warnings eliciting more or less negative emotion.

More Is Not Always Better: Intuitions About Effective Public Policy Can Lead to Unintended Consequences.

Public policy decisions often appear based on an assumption that providing more options, more information, and greater decision-making autonomy to consumers will produce better outcomes. We examine reasons why this "more-is-better" approach exists based on the psychological literature. Although better outcomes can result from informed consumer choice, we argue that more options, information, and autonomy can also lead to unintended negative consequences.

Auditory hindsight bias.

People who know the outcome of an event tend to overestimate their own prior knowledge or others' naïve knowledge of it. This hindsight bias pervades cognition, lending the world an unwarranted air of inevitability. In four experiments, we showed how knowing the identities of words causes people to overestimate others' naïve ability to identify moderately to highly degraded spoken versions of those words.