Completed Projects

Health Behaviours Survey Module One: Illicit Drugs

The aim of this survey was to provide national population data on levels of drug use and drug related harm in New Zealand. The interview included sections on alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other drugs, such as amphetamines, ecstasy, opiates and hallucinogens.

The survey was the first module of the Ministry of Health’s ten year health surveying strategy.

The findings from this survey will be compared with previous Health Research Council (HRC) funded national drug surveys conducted in 1998 and 2001 with the aim of establishing trends in drug use and drug-related harm over time.

The survey sample consisted of a national sample of approximately 7,700 people aged 13-65 interviewed using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system, and a supplementary sample of 400 people of the same age range who live in households without telephones interviewed using a Computer Assisted Cell Phone Interviewing (CACI) methodology.

Approximately 4,100 of the interviews were Maori. A sample of Maori only respondents was collected to supplement the data collected on Maori in the general population sample. Maori only interviews will be collected using screening procedures and information from the electoral roll.

Surveying was conducted April to September 2003