SEOSI – the Scientific Evaluation of Supervised Injecting – is a cohort study that began in 2003. SEOSI participants have been randomly recruited from Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection facility, and form a representative sample of all Insite clients.
Download the Full Report (link)
Download the Research Summary (PDF)
Like other UHRI cohorts, SEOSI is a longitudinal study, meaning that it is made up of individuals who represent a larger specific population and who are tracked over time. After informed consent is obtained, each participant provides a blood sample and completes an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Participants return every six months for a follow-up interview and blood testing. The information collected through SEOSI relates primarily to the use of Insite and how the facility affects drug use practices such as syringe sharing, public drug use and other factors in participants' lives that may compromise their health.
More than 30 research studies evaluating Insite, Vancouver's supervised injecting facility, have been published in such prestigious peer-reviewed journals as The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal.
In short, the evaluation has found that Insite has had an overall positive impact on the community in which it is located. Specifically, Insite has:
- Reduced the kinds of drug using behaviours that increase the risk of HIV transmission and overdose death
- Led to increased use of addiction treatment services among the people who inject at Insite
- Reduced the amount of public injecting
- Not led to an increase in injection drug use
- Not led to an increase in drug-related crime
For more: visit the SEOSI page on the Addiction and Urban Health Research Initiative website
