Scottish Public Health Observatory quarterly update
December 2022

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) quarterly update on a number of topic areas. Of these topics, the drugs, asthma, COPD, diabetes, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis pages contain new data.

Main points

Drugs - Availability and Prevalence

• In 2021/22 drug trend testing was carried out across 12 Scottish prisons which receive direct admissions from court.
• Of the 769 tests conducted at prisoner reception, 77% were positive for any drug, and 73% were positive for illegal drugs (including the illicit use of prescribed drugs). The most commonly detected drugs were cannabis (46%) and cocaine (37%).
• Of the 259 tests carried out at prisoner liberation, 53% were positive for any drug, and 29% were positive for illegal drugs. The most commonly detected drugs were illicit buprenorphine (10%) and illicit benzodiazepines (10%).

Drugs - Treatment for Drug use

• Based on numbers of Defined Daily Doses, methadone decreased from 95% of all Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) dispensing in 2012/13 to 86% in 2021/22. Over the same time period, the dispensing of OST medications containing buprenorphine increased from 5% of OST dispensing in 2012/13 to 14% in 2021/22.
• Methadone (1mg/ml) solution was prescribed to an estimated minimum of 23,411 individuals for the treatment of opioid dependence.
• Buprenorphine tablets were prescribed to an estimated minimum of 7,076 individuals for the treatment of opioid dependence.

Asthma:

• Asthma hospital admissions in Scotland dropped dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021/22 overall admissions rate was 66 admissions per 100,000 people, an increase from the previous year but the rate remains below that of the pre-pandemic period (around 90 admissions per 100,000 people).
• Asthma hospitalisations in children aged less than 10 years have returned to rates comparable to the pre-pandemic period.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD):

• The incidence of COPD in Scotland (measured using hospital admissions data and death records) dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. Latest figures indicate that whilst rates have increased in 2021/22 for both males (97.6 cases per 100,000 people) and females (97.3 cases per 100,000 people) they remain around 25% lower than the pre-pandemic period.

Diabetes:

• During the COVID-19 pandemic hospital admissions in Scotland with a main diagnosis of diabetes fell by approximately 16% from 2019/20 to 2020/21. The latest data show the 2021/22 admission rates have returned to close to pre-pandemic levels at 1,398 admissions per 100,000 people.

Epilepsy:

• Over the last 10 years there has been a slight downward trend in new cases of epilepsy, identified using hospitalisation and death records. In 2021/22, males continued to have a higher incidence of epilepsy than females, at 29.5 new cases per 100,000 population compared to 21.9 per 100,000 for females.

Multiple Sclerosis:

• The Scottish incidence of multiple sclerosis (identified using hospital admissions data and death records) in females (9.9 per 100,000 population in 2021/22) remains double that of males (4.9 per 100,000 population in 2021/22) despite recent reductions.
• New cases of multiple sclerosis in females aged 25 to 59 years reduced by around one third over the past 3 years from 21.4 to 13.9 per 100,000 population in 2021/22. The reduction appears unique to this group and has not been observed across other age and sex groups.

Background

The Scottish Public Health Observatory (external website) collaboration is led by PHS and includes the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, National Records of Scotland, the Medical Research Council/Chief Scientist Office Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory.

The aim of the collaboration is to make public health information more accessible, to promote the reduction in inequalities and to inform health improvement in Scotland.

Further information

Data from this publication are available from the publication page on the ScotPHO website (external website).

The next release of this publication will be 28 March 2022.