TY - JOUR
T1 - Racial/ethnic differences in use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana
T2 - Is there a cross-over from adolescence to adulthood?
AU - Keyes, Katherine M.
AU - Vo, Thomas
AU - Wall, Melanie M.
AU - Caetano, Raul
AU - Suglia, Shakira F.
AU - Martins, Silvia S.
AU - Galea, Sandro
AU - Hasin, Deborah
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism ( K01AA021511 , Keyes), National Institute of Child and Human Development ( R01HD060072 , Martins), National Heart Lung and Blood Institute ( K01HL103199 , Suglia). The funding organizations had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website ( http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth ). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - Black adolescents in the US are less likely to use alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco compared with non-Hispanic Whites, but little is known about the consistency of these racial/ethnic differences in substance use across the lifecourse. Understanding lifecourse patterning of substance use is critical to inform prevention and intervention efforts. Data were drawn from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Wave 1 (mean age=16): N=14,101; Wave 4 (mean age=29): N=11,365). Outcomes included alcohol (including at-risk drinking, defined as 5+/4+ drinks per drinking occasion or 14+/7+ drinks per week on average for men and women, respectively), cigarette, and marijuana use in 30-day/past-year. Random effects models stratified by gender tested differences-in-differences for wave by race interactions, controlling for age, parents' highest education/income, public assistance, and urbanicity. Results indicate that for alcohol, Whites were more likely to use alcohol and engage in at-risk alcohol use at all waves. By mean age 29.9, for example, White men were 2.1 times as likely to engage in at-risk alcohol use (95% C.I. 1.48-2.94). For cigarettes, Whites were more likely to use cigarettes and smoked more at Waves 1 through 3; there were no differences by Wave 4 for men and a diminished difference for women, and difference-in-difference models indicated evidence of convergence. For marijuana, there were no racial/ethnic differences in use for men at any wave. For women, by Wave 4 there was convergence in marijuana use and a cross-over in frequency of use among users, with Black women using more than White women. In summary, no convergence or cross-over for racial/ethnic differences through early adulthood in alcohol use; convergence for cigarette as well as marijuana use. Lifecourse patterns of health disparities secondary to heavy substance use by race and ethnicity may be, at least in part, due to age-related variation in cigarette and marijuana use.
AB - Black adolescents in the US are less likely to use alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco compared with non-Hispanic Whites, but little is known about the consistency of these racial/ethnic differences in substance use across the lifecourse. Understanding lifecourse patterning of substance use is critical to inform prevention and intervention efforts. Data were drawn from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Wave 1 (mean age=16): N=14,101; Wave 4 (mean age=29): N=11,365). Outcomes included alcohol (including at-risk drinking, defined as 5+/4+ drinks per drinking occasion or 14+/7+ drinks per week on average for men and women, respectively), cigarette, and marijuana use in 30-day/past-year. Random effects models stratified by gender tested differences-in-differences for wave by race interactions, controlling for age, parents' highest education/income, public assistance, and urbanicity. Results indicate that for alcohol, Whites were more likely to use alcohol and engage in at-risk alcohol use at all waves. By mean age 29.9, for example, White men were 2.1 times as likely to engage in at-risk alcohol use (95% C.I. 1.48-2.94). For cigarettes, Whites were more likely to use cigarettes and smoked more at Waves 1 through 3; there were no differences by Wave 4 for men and a diminished difference for women, and difference-in-difference models indicated evidence of convergence. For marijuana, there were no racial/ethnic differences in use for men at any wave. For women, by Wave 4 there was convergence in marijuana use and a cross-over in frequency of use among users, with Black women using more than White women. In summary, no convergence or cross-over for racial/ethnic differences through early adulthood in alcohol use; convergence for cigarette as well as marijuana use. Lifecourse patterns of health disparities secondary to heavy substance use by race and ethnicity may be, at least in part, due to age-related variation in cigarette and marijuana use.
KW - Add health
KW - African american
KW - Alcohol
KW - Ethnicity
KW - Marijuana
KW - Race
KW - Substance use
KW - Tobacco
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U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.11.035
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.11.035
M3 - Article
C2 - 25461870
AN - SCOPUS:84911431739
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 124
SP - 132
EP - 141
JO - Ethics in Science and Medicine
JF - Ethics in Science and Medicine
ER -