Injecting drug use in Melbourne: SuperMIX cohort study

Open to students

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.

Accessible Pie Chart

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

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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

Contact

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

Supervisors

Contact

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

Supervisors

Contact

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

Contact

Key publications

20 Oct 2021

Cohort Profile: The Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study (SuperMIX)

International Journal of Epidemiology

Daniel O’Keefe, Wijnand van den Boom, Maria del Mar Quiroga, Dhanya Kumar, Penny Hill, Nick Scott, Paul A. Agius, Peter Higgs, Lisa Maher, Matthew Hickman

17 Jun 2022

Mortality in the SuperMIX cohort of people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia: a prospective observational study

Addiction

Penny Hill, Mark Stoové, Paul A. Agius, Lisa Maher, Paul Dietze

30 Jan 2023

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, Paul Dietze, Wijnand van den Boom

Other publications

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

Group mailbox

SuperMIX team

supermix@burnet.edu.au +611800650299

Student supervisor contacts

Health themes

Projects

Published research

Careers

Study at Burnet

About us

Where we work

Injecting drug use in Melbourne: SuperMIX cohort study

Our impact

About the study

Participant location

Student opportunities

Social networks of people who use drugs

Open to

Supervisors

Contact

Tobacco/nicotine harm reduction among people with a history of illicit drug use

Open to

Vacancies

Supervisors

Contact

Measuring risk and health outcomes among women who use drugs

Open to

Vacancies

Supervisors

Contact

Understanding the needs of women who inject drugs

Open to

Supervisors

Contact

Key publications

Cohort Profile: The Melbourne Injecting Drug User Cohort Study (SuperMIX)

Mortality in the SuperMIX cohort of people who inject drugs in Melbourne, Australia: a prospective observational study

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

Other publications

Partners

Funding partners

Collaborators

Project contacts

Main contacts

SuperMIX team

Student supervisor contacts

Dr Rachel Sacks-Davis

Senior Research Fellow

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

Dr Michael Curtis

Postdoctoral Research Officer

Dr Anna Wilkinson

Research Fellow

Associate Professor Peter Higgs

Principal Research Fellow; Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University

Dr Rebecca Winter

Deputy Head Justice Health Group

Dr Shelley Walker

Adjunct Research Fellow

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