Ambulance calls for Substance use and Alcohol in a Pandemic (ASAP) [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Ambulance calls for Substance use and Alcohol in a Pandemic (ASAP): Exploring attendance at incidents involving substance and/or alcohol use during COVID-19 pandemic
IRAS ID
286198
Contact name
Graham Law
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Lincoln
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 15 days
Research summary
Since 23rd March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a phase of “lock-down” in the UK, with society facing significant time at home with limited social interactions. Quarantine is known to have many psychological implications and stressors, which are likely to have implications on health behaviours such as substance and alcohol use and abuse. These behaviours, in turn, impact on emergency ambulance services. \n\nASAP (Ambulance calls for Alcohol and Substance use in a Pandemic) aims to explore routinely-collected data (we are not collecting new data) from ambulance attendance at incidents involving alcohol and/or substance use over the period of lockdown and the year after. The data will be fully anonymised by the ambulance service. We will compare this time period to similar times in previous years to see if the number of calls relating to alcohol and/or substance use has changed since COVID-19.\n\nWe will explore factors associated with calls, such as age and gender, their ethnicity and underlying diseases. This will help show who may be more at risk of alcohol and/or substance use during a pandemic and afterwards. We will also explore rurality, deprivation and the day of the week and time of day. We will then examine clinical decisions made by ambulance service staff. Finally we hope to offer further insight into decisions made on-site and on the telephone call to explore improvements that may be made to the service.\n
REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/SC/0307
Date of REC Opinion
4 Sep 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion