Prevalence of substance use and resilience behaviors and association with the COVID‑19 pandemic: A linked data cohort study among young people of British Columbia, Canada.
We will use rich data sets at Foundry (an integrated youth services organization), the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Health, and the Human Early Learning Partnership (an initiative to measure childhood development) to analyze how the COVID‑19 pandemic has impacted young people ages 10-24 years across BC. Specifically, we will look at changes in substance use (with substances including alcohol, cannabis, and illicit drugs such as opioids) and the factors that protect against substance use or increase the risk for substance use. We will also examine how the pandemic has affected young people accessing services for substance use issues. We will then develop interventions for substance use by young people, taking into account the results we see for specific communities and populations in order to make the interventions relevant and appropriate. We anticipate that our project will help build capacity and a common language amongst stakeholders (from community to government) to advance intersectoral action to improve the health and resilience of young people during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
