Ageing and older people who use illicit opioids, cocaine or methamphetamine: a scoping review and literature map.

AIMS: To provide an overview of research literature on ageing and older people who use illicit opioids and stimulants by documenting the conceptual frameworks used and content areas that have been investigated. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of literature relating to ageing and older people who use illicit stimulants and opioids, defining 'older' as 40 years and above. Primary studies, secondary studies and editorials were included. Searches were conducted in PubMed and Embase in July 2020 and March 2021; the Cochrane library was searched in November 2021. Charted data included methodological details, any conceptual frameworks explicitly applied by authors and the content areas that were the focus of the publication. We developed a hierarchy of content areas and mapped this to provide a visual guide to the research area. RESULTS: Of the 164 publications included in this review, only 16 explicitly applied a conceptual framework. Seven core content areas were identified, with most publications contributing to multiple content areas: acknowledgement of drug use among older people (n = 64), health status (n = 129), health services (n = 109), drug use practices and patterns (n = 84), social environments (n = 74), the criminal legal system (n = 28) and quality of life (n = 15). CONCLUSIONS: The literature regarding older people who use illicit drugs remains under-theorized. Conceptual frameworks are rarely applied and few have been purposely adapted to this population. Health status and health services access and use are among the most frequently researched topics in this area.

Estimating informal household food waste in developed countries: the case of Australia.

Food waste is a global problem. In Australia alone, it is estimated that households throw away AU$5.2 billion worth of food (AU$616 per household) each year. Developed countries have formal waste management systems that provide measures of food waste. However, much remains unknown about informal food waste disposal routes and volumes outside of the formal system. This article provides indicative metrics of informal food waste by identifying, in detail, five of the dominant informal food waste disposal routes used by Australian households: home composting, feeding scraps to pets, sewer disposal, giving to charity, and dumping or incineration. Informal waste generation rates are then calculated from three primary data sources, in addition to data from previous Australian and UK surveys, using a weighted average method in conjunction with a Monte-Carlo simulation. We find that the average Australian household disposes of 2.6 kgs of food waste per week through informal routes (1.7 kgs via household composting, 0.2 kgs via animals, and 0.6 kgs via sewage). This represents 20% of Australian household food waste flows. Our results highlight that informal food waste is a sizable food waste flow from Australian homes, deserving of greater research and government attention. Our examination of the full extent of food waste by disposal mode provides waste managers and policy makers with clear disposal routes to target for behaviour change and positive environmental outcomes.