Researchers from the University of Vermont and several other institutions this spring will launch a multi-year study focused on drug use and barriers to health services in New England.
The study will follow 1,200 people with substance use disorder across the three states — Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — for up to five years.
Researchers hope to track how people use state programs around HIV and hepatitis C prevention, needle exchanges, and the impacts of newer initiatives like overdose prevention centers, where people can use drugs under medical supervision. (Rhode Island is currently the only New England state with such a facility, though Burlington is working to open one.)
The study will also look at how rural settings affect drug use, said Dr. Devika Singh, associate professor of medicine at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine.
“Are other things that perhaps pertain to individuals in more isolated communities — underlying mental health, stressors, depression, anxiety — that are influencing well-being and then perhaps encouraging more substance use?” Singh said.
Researchers at the University of Vermont, Brown University and the University of California–San Diego will lead the study, which is funded by a $12 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a federal research institution.
According to Singh, who’s leading the research at UVM, the goal is to recruit about 400 people in Vermont for the study. The researchers want to follow people who inject, snort or inhale drugs — not people who only use cannabis, alcohol or prescribed narcotics.
One aim of the work is to better understand the barriers to drug treatment, Singh said.
“Are there meaningful themes, including poverty in Vermont or racism?” Singh said. “Vermont, across the nation, has the second highest rate of homelessness, and so is that playing a relevant theme in terms of people accessing programs across the state?”
The Vermont portion of the study will mainly focus on Chittenden and Windham counties, because that's where state health department data show higher rates of emergency department visits for opioid overdoses compared to the rest of the state, Singh said.
The researchers hope to begin the study this coming spring.
