Injecting drug use in Melbourne: SuperMIX cohort study
SuperMIX is the largest and longest-running active cohort study of people who inject drugs in Australia, with over 1500 participants.
Since 2008, we have surveyed people who inject drugs in the Melbourne and the Greater Geelong region to:
- understand rates of mortality, poor mental health, overdose, bloodborne virus (BBV) infections, injecting-related injuries and diseases (IRIDs), and chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- determine the effectiveness of existing and new health programs like drug treatment, take-home naloxone (THN) and supervised injecting facilities (SIFs). The goal is to improve health and help people stop usings drugs in the long-term
- evaluate the impacts of structural factors (like homelessness and imprisonment) on health outcomes.
A cohort study is a research method where scientists follow a group of people over time to see how certain things, like habits or exposures, affect their health.
SuperMIX provides important information on how injecting drug use evolves over time. People in the study complete follow-up interviews once a year. They also consent to linking their past and future data to administrative health and social datasets.
SuperMIX is part of a broader study called MIXMAX. This combines SuperMIX with VMAX—a study collecting data on methamphetamine use over time—to become the largest active cohort study of people who use drugs in Australia.
Our impact
SuperMIX has informed state government alcohol and other drug treatment services, including reviews of the Medically Supervised Injecting Room Trial. The project has also contributed to systematic reviews and international collaborative studies:
About the study
The SuperMIX study runs from a mobile van which visits different health services around Melbourne. Participants usually complete an interview in person with a researcher and have blood taken to test for blood borne viruses. Between 2020 and 2022, researchers switched to phone interviews due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In August 2022:
- 5,530 surveys were completed
- 1,328 participants completed a baseline interview
- 28 was the average age of participants at baseline interview
- participants were involved in the study for 8.6 years on average
- the average number of follow up surveys was 4.2.
Participant location
Participants are located all around Victoria. The following chart provides a breakdown of participant locations as at August 2022.
The pie chart shows the percentage of study participants located in different areas of Victoria. Footscray has the highest percentage (38%), while Geelong has the lowest (1%). Other regions are represented as follows: North Richmond (19%), Frankston (16%), Central Business District (10%), Inner north (7%), St Kilda (6%), and Dandenong (5%).
Student opportunities
Social networks of people who use drugs
Help us understand the characteristics study participant social networks. Investigate the influence of these characteristics on drug-related risk behaviours and harms, including cessation from and relapse into drug use, and overdose.
Open to
- Masters by research
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters by coursework
Supervisors
Tobacco/nicotine harm reduction among people with a history of illicit drug use
Quantitative research including:
- analysis of trends in prevalence of daily tobacco use, quantity of cigarettes smoked daily, and/or vape use
- analysis of longitudinal changes in individual smoking behaviours
- estimation of incidence of tobacco-related chronic disease hospital admissions.
Open to
- Masters by research
- Honours
Vacancies
1
Supervisors
Measuring risk and health outcomes among women who use drugs
Qualitative and quantitative research, including:
- conducting in-depth interviews with study participants to better understand their experiences as people who inject drugs
- analysis of longitudinal survey data, characterising and assessing its suitability to understand behavioural risk and health outcomes among women.
Open to
- Honours
- Masters by research
Vacancies
2
Supervisors
Understanding the needs of women who inject drugs
Qualitative and quantitative research, or mixed methods research including:
- conducting in-depth interviews with women of the SuperMIX study, to better understand their gendered experiences as people who inject drugs
- analysis of longitudinal SuperMIX survey data to characterise the qualitative research sample and/or understand and compare differences between selected variables (experiences) of men/women.
Open to
- Honours
- Masters by research
Supervisors
Key publications
Cohort Profile: The Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study (SuperMIX)
International Journal of Epidemiology
Wijnand van den Boom et al
Mortality in the SuperMIX cohort of people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia: a prospective observational study
Addiction
Penny Hill et al
Comprehensive needle and syringe program and opioid agonist therapy reduce HIV and hepatitis c virus acquisition among people who inject drugs in different settings: A pooled analysis of emulated trials
Addiction
Daniela K van Santen et al
Partners
Funding partners
-
Colonial Foundation Trust
- National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Grant IDs: 545891, 1126090, 2023690
Collaborators
- Monash Rural Health
- British Columbia Centre on Substance Use
- Curtin University
- Deakin University
- University of Bristol
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
- Kirby Institute
- UNSW Sydney
- Alfred Health
- Harm Reduction Victoria
- Royal Melbourne Hospital
Project contacts
Main contacts
Student supervisor contacts
Professor Paul Dietze
Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
Associate Professor Peter Higgs
Principal Research Fellow; Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University
Associate Professor Peter Higgs
Principal Research Fellow; Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University
Project team
Professor Paul Dietze
Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
Shady Abdelsalam
Master’s Student
Associate Professor Paul Agius
Honorary Principal Research Fellow
Dr Campbell Aitken
Research Fellow
Anja Busse
Honorary Senior Fellow
Dr Jocelyn Chan
Public Health Physician and Research Officer
Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby
Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Troy Combo
Program Manager, Aboriginal Health Plan, EC Australia
Stephanie Curtis
Surveillance Officer / Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology) Scholar
Dr Michael Curtis
Postdoctoral Research Officer
Filip Djordjevic
Research Assistant
Professor Joseph (Joe) Doyle
Deputy Program Director, Disease Elimination; Co-Head, Infectious Diseases Clinical Research; President, Hepatitis Australia; NHMRC Clinical Research Fellow
Associate Professor Anna Hearps
Deputy Program Director, Disease Elimination; Head, Infection, Inflammation and Innate Immunity
Associate Professor Peter Higgs
Principal Research Fellow; Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University
Zachary Lloyd
Research Assistant
Gulliver McLean
Research Assistant
Rebekka (Bek) Petrovic
Research Assistant
Dr Amanda Roxburgh
Senior Research Fellow
Ashleigh Stewart
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Professor Mark A Stoové
Head of Public Health
Dr Shelley Walker
Adjunct Research Fellow
Bianca Whiteside
PhD candidate; Research Assistant
Joanna Wilson
Research Assistant
Matthew Gill
PhD Student
Associate Professor Bernadette Ward
Collaborator
Monash Rural Health
Dr Thomas Kerr
Collaborator
British Columbia Centre on Substance Use
Dr Jocelyn Jones
Collaborator
Curtin University
Professor Matthew Hickman
Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology
University of Bristol
Associate Professor James Trauer
Head of Epidemiological Modelling
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
Professor Lisa Maher
Collaborator
Kirby Institute and UNSW Sydney
Associate Professor Andrew Stewardson
Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology
Alfred Health; Monash Univesity
Sione Crawford
CEO
Harm Reduction Victoria