The Uses of an Epidemiology of Drug Use: The Canadian Scene

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Abstract
Epidemiology began as the science of epidemics originally investigating the source, spread, and control of communicable diseases (Rogers, 1965). This remains an important function in many parts of the world, but in North America more attention is given to epidemiological studies of noncommunicable diseases. A further novelty is the application of epidemiological methods to behavioral pathologies such as mental illness, drug abuse, and drug use in which physical illness is a minor element. Broadly speaking, epidemiology is “the study of all factors (and their interdependence) that affect the occurrence and course of health and disease in a population” (Rogers, 1965). It is this broader definition into which current studies of drug use fit since they only rarely bear upon disease or pathology. Such studies have been, at times, concerned with the incidence of drug use— the number of new users during some given period of time (usually 6 months or 1 year) — but mainly they have attempted to produced estimates of the prevalence of drug use — the proportion of some defined population (e.g., high school students in one city) that has used drugs at a given point in time (usually about the time the study was conducted). Generally speaking, less attention has been paid to broader aspects of factors that affect their occurrence. In many such studies the uses of epidemiology beyond the acturial have not been considered.

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