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A global systematic review and meta-analysis on illicit drug consumption rate through wastewater-based epidemiology

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Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is a complementary, well-established comprehensive, cost-effective, and rapid technique for monitoring of illicit drugs used in a general population. This systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to estimate the rank and consumption rate of illicit drugs through WBE studies. In the current study, the related investigations regarding the illicit drug consumption rate based on WBE were searched among the international databases including Scopus, PubMed, Science direct, Google scholar, and local database, Magiran from 2012 up to May 2019. The illicit drug consumption rate with 95% confidence intervals was pooled between studies by using random effect model. The heterogeneity was determined using I2 statistics. Also, subgroup analyses were conducted to examine the possible effects of year and location of studies on observed heterogeneity. Meta-analysis of 37 articles indicates that the overall rank order of illicit drugs according to their pooled consumption rate can be summarized as tetrahydrocannabinol or cannabis (7417.9 mg/day/1000 people) > cocaine (655.7 mg/day/1000 people) > morphine (384.9 mg/day/1000 people) > methamphetamine (296.2 mg/day/1000 people) > codeine (222.7 mg/day/1000 people) > methadone (200.2 mg/day/1000 people) > 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (126.3 mg/day/1000 people) > amphetamine (118.2 mg/day/1000 people) > 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3, 3-diphenylpyrrolidine (33.7 mg/day/1000 people). The pooled level rate was 190.16 mg/day/1000 people for benzoylecgonine (main urinary cocaine metabolite), 137.9 mg/day/1000 people for 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (main metabolite of cannabis), and 33.7 mg/day/1000 people for 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3, 3-diphenylpyrrolidine (main metabolite of methadone). The I2 values for all selected drugs were 100% (P value < 0.001). The results of year subgroup indicated that the changes of heterogeneity for all selected drugs were nearly negligible. The heterogeneity within studies based on continents subgroup just decreased in America for drugs like 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (I2 = 24.4%) and benzoylecgonine (I2 = 94.1%). The outcome of this meta-analysis can be used for finding the illicit drugs with global serious problem in view of consumption rate (i.e., cannabis and cocaine) and helping authorities to combat them.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Institute for Medical Research Development (NIMAD) (the ethics code of IR.NIMAD.REC.1397.520). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the Research Council of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 980555) for the financial assistance. Zahra Safaei also would like to thank the Maa-ja vesitekniikan tuki ry (MVTT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Students Research Committee, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Shabnam Zarei

  2. Social Development & Health Promotion Research Center, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Yahya Salimi

  3. Department of Separation Science, School of Engineering Science, LUT University, Mikkeli, Finland

    Eveliina Repo & Zahra Safaei

  4. Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Cukurova, 01330, Adana, Turkey

    Nebile Daglioglu

  5. Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Fisheries, University of Cukurova, 01330, Adana, Turkey

    Evsen Güzel

  6. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health (RCEDH), Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Anvar Asadi

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Zarei, S., Salimi, Y., Repo, E. et al. A global systematic review and meta-analysis on illicit drug consumption rate through wastewater-based epidemiology. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 36037–36051 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09818-6

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