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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.

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. 

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. 

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

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. 

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

Student supervisor contacts

Dr Rachel Sacks-Davis

Dr Rachel Sacks-Davis

Senior Research Fellow
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Professor Paul Dietze

Professor Paul Dietze

Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
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Associate Professor Peter Higgs

Associate Professor Peter Higgs

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

Dr Michael Curtis

Postdoctoral Research Officer
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Dr Anna Wilkinson

Dr Anna Wilkinson

Research Fellow
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Associate Professor Peter Higgs

Associate Professor Peter Higgs

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

Dr Rebecca Winter

Deputy Head Justice Health Group
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Dr Shelley Walker

Dr Shelley Walker

Adjunct Research Fellow
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Project team

Professor Paul Dietze

Professor Paul Dietze

Program Director, Disease Elimination; Professor and Program Leader, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI)
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Shady Abdelsalam

Shady Abdelsalam

Master’s Student
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Associate Professor Paul Agius

Associate Professor Paul Agius

Honorary Principal Research Fellow
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Dr Campbell  Aitken

Dr Campbell Aitken

Research Fellow
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Anja Busse

Anja Busse

Honorary Senior Fellow
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Dr Jocelyn Chan

Dr Jocelyn Chan

Public Health Physician and Research Officer
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Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby

Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby

Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Troy Combo

Troy Combo

Program Manager, Aboriginal Health Plan, EC Australia
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Stephanie Curtis

Stephanie Curtis

Surveillance Officer / Master of Philosophy (Applied Epidemiology) Scholar
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Dr Michael Curtis

Dr Michael Curtis

Postdoctoral Research Officer
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Filip Djordjevic

Filip Djordjevic

Research Assistant
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Professor Joseph (Joe) Doyle

Professor Joseph (Joe) Doyle

Deputy Program Director, Disease Elimination; Co-Head, Infectious Diseases Clinical Research; President, Hepatitis Australia; NHMRC Clinical Research Fellow
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Dr Anna Hearps

Dr Anna Hearps

Deputy Program Director, Disease Elimination; Head, Infection, Inflammation and Innate Immunity Group
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Associate Professor Peter Higgs

Associate Professor Peter Higgs

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

Zachary Lloyd

Research Assistant
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Rebekka (Bek) Petrovic

Rebekka (Bek) Petrovic

Research Assistant
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Dr Amanda Roxburgh

Dr Amanda Roxburgh

Senior Research Fellow
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Ashleigh Stewart

Ashleigh Stewart

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Professor Mark A  Stoové

Professor Mark A Stoové

Head of Public Health
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Dr Shelley Walker

Dr Shelley Walker

Adjunct Research Fellow
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Bianca Whiteside

Bianca Whiteside

PhD candidate; Research Assistant
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Joanna Wilson

Joanna Wilson

Research Assistant
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Associate Professor Bernadette Ward

Associate Professor Bernadette Ward

Collaborator
Monash Rural Health
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Dr Thomas Kerr

Dr Thomas Kerr

Collaborator
British Columbia Centre on Substance Use
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Dr Jocelyn Jones

Dr Jocelyn Jones

Collaborator
Curtin University
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Professor Matthew Hickman

Professor Matthew Hickman

Collaborator
University of Bristol
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Associate Professor James Trauer

Associate Professor James Trauer

Head of Epidemiological Modelling
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
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Professor Lisa Maher

Professor Lisa Maher

Collaborator
Kirby Institute and UNSW Sydney
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Associate Professor Andrew Stewardson

Associate Professor Andrew Stewardson

Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology
Alfred Health; Monash Univesity
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Sione Crawford

Sione Crawford

Collaborator
Harm Reduction Australia
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Associate Professor Nicholas  Clark

Associate Professor Nicholas Clark

Collaborator
Royal Melbourne Hospital
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