Abstract:
Introduction Recreational drug use in the nightlife setting carries the risk of many negative consequences, such as violence, injuries, aberrant driving and sexual risk-taking. The aim of this study is to investigate recreational drug use and user characteristics among people visiting licensed premises, for example, nightclubs and bars, by using self-reports and biological markers. Staff of licensed premises will be asked to report drug use observations. Further, by using qualitative data, we will examine the motives, consequences and culture associated with recreational drug use. An additional aim is to compare self-reported drug use with oral fluid test (OFT) results in order to validate the different measurement methods in this context.
Methods and analyses
Data collection will be conducted among patrons (n=1000) outside licensed premises. On consent, patrons will be asked to anonymously complete a questionnaire, a breath alcohol concentration test and an OFT. Patrons who report use of recreational drugs in the previous 12 months will be asked to leave their contact information for a subsequent qualitative in-depth interview (n=30–40). Staff from licensed premises (n=500) will be invited during Responsible Beverage Service Training to participate in an anonymous survey. Survey data will be analysed by univariate and multivariate statistical methods and the oral fluids will be analysed for a large number of drugs using biochemical methods. Cohen's κ will be used as a measure of agreement between self-reported drug use and OFT. In-depth interviews will be coded in HyperRESEARCH and analysed using an inductive approach. Data collection will be repeated on a biannual basis until at least 2020, allowing for examination of trends in recreational drug use.
Ethics and dissemination
This study has been approved by the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics. Results will be disseminated in research journals, conferences and the media.
Citation: Trond Nordfjærn, Marit Edland-Gryt, Anne Line Bretteville-Jensen, Kristin Buvik, Johanna Gripenberg Recreational Drug Use In The Oslo Nightlife Setting: Study Protocol For A Cross-sectional Time Series Using Biological Markers, Self-reported And Qualitative Data BMJ Open 2016;6:e009306 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009306
Received: 6 July 2015, Revised: 19 November 2015, Accepted: 27 January 2016, Published: 22 April 2016
Copyright: © 2016 This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Footnotes
Contributors TN, ALB-J, ME-G and JG designed the study. KB contributed to the design of the study. TN wrote the study protocol with substantial critical input from all co-authors. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding
This work is carried out and mainly funded by The Department of Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Research, Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The Norwegian institute of Public Health funds personell resources related to oral fluid analysis.
Competing interests
None declared.
Ethics approval
The study has been approved by the Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics (application 2014/192).
Provenance and peer review
Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
