Variables and response options to be examined in association with pharmaceutical opioid-related emergency department presentations, by opioid-type
| Category | Variable | Variable options |
| Patient demographics | Age | ≥12 years; extracted in 5-year blocks |
| Sex | Males, females, total (including other genders with cell sizes too small to be extracted separately) | |
| Region | Metro, regional/rural, interstate/overseas, unknown | |
| Country of birth | Australia, overseas (presented as an English speaking country, or non-English speaking country if cell sizes allow). The 12-month substance use disorder prevalence is 6% for Australian born residents, 4.4% if the birthplace was another English-speaking country, and 1.6% for a non-English speaking country.27 | |
| Patient SEIFA | Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is a proxy measure for socioeconomic status based on home postcode.28 Australians living in the lowest socioeconomic areas have the highest burden of disease and highest rates of opioid prescriptions.2 | |
| Context of presentation (intent of use, indicator of misuse) | Human intent | i. Unintentional ii. Intentional self-harm iii. Assault, maltreatment and neglect iv. Other and undetermined intent |
| Admission outcome (proxy of severity) | i. Discharge to home/ returning to usual residence ii. Admission to ward/ procedure room—this campus (note, this is also a proxy for clinical severity) iii. Transfer to another hospital campus iv. Departure before treatment completed | |
| Triage severity of presentation (proxy of severity) | Australasian Triage Scale (ATS) Category | Each of the five categories relates to treatment acuity and the maximum waiting time for medical assessment and treatment. i. ATS 1 (Immediate) ii. ATS 2 (10 min) iii. ATS 3 (30 min) iv. ATS 4 (60 min) v. ATS 5 (120 min) |