Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
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Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf · Mar 2011
Role of key informants and direct patient interviews in epidemiological studies of substance abuse.
The present study was undertaken to assess the degree to which key informants' perceptions of relative abuse liability of opioids in their communities correspond to actual drug use in their patients. ⋯ Our results demonstrate that KI's perceived rank order of drugs of choice correlated almost perfectly with their patients' choice of a primary drug. These data suggest that key informants, as they have for decades in epidemiological research, provide a reliable, high-level view of substance abuse in their catchment area. As such, KIs provide valid and reliable information on scope and patterns of abuse, but if more detail is required about the characteristics of abuse, such as that required for FDA-mandated Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, then direct interviews with the abusers themselves seem more appropriate.