Cases are people included in the BC-ODC who experienced a drug poisoning since January 1, 2015. This period was the beginning of the rapid rise in unregulated drug poisoning events and deaths in B.C. 

An overdose event is defined by any of the following: 

• Administration of the opioid antagonist, Naloxone, by paramedics
• Physician-diagnosed opioid drug poisoning at an emergency department
• Coroner-determined illicit drug toxicity death
• A visit to a hospital, emergency department, or physician with an associated drug poisoning diagnosis code
• Vital Statistics drug poisoning death.
  

Drug poisoning events can show up in several datasets. For example, a drug poisoning record may be in ambulance, emergency, and hospital datasets. These events are grouped to prevent over-counting of drug poisonings.

Controls

Controls are people used as a comparison group for the BC-ODC. The Control group is selected from a 20% random sample of the B.C. population. Like cases, health and prescribing histories are available for this group. 

A matched control group is also available. Previous BC-ODC analyses have matched people on birth year, sex, and Local Health Area of residence. 

Potential Uses

Knowledge Updates & Analyses that Support the Unregulated Drug Poisoning Emergency Response

• There is a high prevalence of brain injury among people who had a drug poisoning event
  
• The risk of severe COVID-19 complications is high among people who had a drug poisoning event
  
• There is an increasing proportion of people declining transportation to the hospital by paramedics following a drug poisoning event
  

Research Papers

• Patterns and history of prescription drug use among opioid-related drug poisoning
  
• Risk of drug poisoning death for people with a history of incarceration