Methamphetamine use in Melbourne and rural Victoria: the VMAX cohort study

Open to students

The VMAX cohort study follows more than 850 people who use methamphetamine recruited from metropolitan Melbourne and 3 regions of rural Victoria.

Methamphetamine use is a significant public health issue in Australia. It’s associated with a range of harms that increased significantly in line with:

major changes to the methamphetamine market
changes in the behaviour of people who use the drug.

There a few prospective studies of methamphetamine use in Australia. In 2016, we established the VMAX cohort study to determine patterns of methamphetamine use and harm in metropolitan and rural Victoria.

People in the study complete follow-up surveys once a year. They also consent to us linking administrative data obtained from health and social services to our cohort study data.

VMAX is part of a broader study called MIXMAX. This combines VMAX with SuperMIX—a study collecting data on injecting drug use over time—to form the largest active cohort study of people who use drugs in Australia.

About the study

As at November 2020, our sample looked like the following:

77% were people who used methamphetamine via non-injecting means.
39% were female.
Participants were recruited from Melbourne and three non-metropolitan Victorian regions.

For more information, read: A prospective cohort of people who use methamphetamine in Melbourne and non-metropolitan Victoria, Australia: Baseline characteristics and correlates of methamphetamine dependence

Our impact

VMAX data is used to determine the nature and extent of methamphetamine use and harm in Victoria. The data has been used to determine issues related to drug driving and service provision across Victoria.

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

News and features

New insights into methamphetamine-related deaths in Australia

Exploring drug use in older adults: APSAD 2024

Featured publications

11 Nov 2020

A prospective cohort of people who use methamphetamine in Melbourne and non‐metropolitan Victoria, Australia: Baseline characteristics and correlates of methamphetamine dependence

Drug and Alcohol Review

Cristal Hall, Brendan Quinn, Bernadette Ward, Paul A. Agius, Rebecca Jenkinson, Keith Sutton, Reece Cossar, Paul Dietze, Brendan Quinn, Bernadette Ward

Partners

Funding partners

Colonial Foundation Trust
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Grant IDs: 1148170, 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

Health themes

Projects

Published research

Careers

Study at Burnet

About us

Where we work

Methamphetamine use in Melbourne and rural Victoria: the VMAX cohort study

About the study

Our impact

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

News and features

New insights into methamphetamine-related deaths in Australia

Exploring drug use in older adults: APSAD 2024

Featured publications

A prospective cohort of people who use methamphetamine in Melbourne and non‐metropolitan Victoria, Australia: Baseline characteristics and correlates of methamphetamine dependence

Partners

Funding partners

Collaborators

Project contacts

Main contacts

Professor Paul Dietze

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

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

Project team

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

Filip Djordjevic

Research Assistant

Zachary Lloyd

Research Assistant

Rebekka (Bek) Petrovic

Research Assistant

Bianca Whiteside

PhD candidate; Research Assistant

Joanna Wilson

Research Assistant

Dr Samantha Colledge-Frisby

Honorary Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Shelley Walker

Adjunct Research Fellow

Dr Michael Curtis

Postdoctoral Research Officer

Associate Professor Bernadette Ward

Collaborator

Monash Rural Health

Dr Thomas Kerr

Collaborator

British Columbia Centre on Substance Use

Dr Jocelyn Jones

Collaborator

Curtin University