TY - JOUR
T1 - Epidemiologic differences in drug dependence - A US-UK cross-national comparison
AU - Furr-Holden, Carolyn D.M.
AU - Anthony, James C.
N1 - Funding Information:
■ Acknowledgements This work was supported by NIDA grants T32 DA07292 and R01 DA105052, and NIMH grant T32 MH14592. The NSPM data were provided by the data archive London, England (#3560; archive@essex.ac.uk) and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) Social Survey Division. OPCS now forms part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Dr Howard Meltzer and B. Gill of the Office for National Statistics, Social Survey Division; and Dr. Rachael Jenkins, Principal Medical Officer, Department of Health were the principal investigators. The NHSDA was provided as a public use data file from The United States Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ( www.samhsa.gov).
PY - 2003/4/1
Y1 - 2003/4/1
N2 - Background. Published epidemiologic survey statistics do not allow direct cross-national comparison of drug dependence in the US and the UK, primarily because of a lack of uniformity across case definitions and methods of case ascertainment. Aims. The current study sought to re-estimate these prevalence values after calibration of case definitions (i. e., imposing methodological constraints to unify case definitions), to identify suspected determinants, and also to investigate symptom profiles among active cases. Method. Analyses of data from the US National House-hold Survey on Drug Abuse and the UK Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity were conducted. Prevalence of active drug dependence symptoms was estimated. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the magnitude of the association between suspected socio-demographic variables and drug dependence. Results. The prevalence of drug dependence was an estimated 1.4% in the US and 0.5% in the UK. This difference was somewhat attenuated when the effect of living in an urban setting was controlled. Symptom profiles among active cases were very similar. In both countries, being male, non-married, of a low socio-economic status (SES), and living in an urban setting were associated with an increased occurrence of drug dependence. Conclusion. There are US-UK differences in prevalence of active drug dependence beyond what available statistics imply and some of this difference can be explained by variations associated with living in urban and rural conditions.
AB - Background. Published epidemiologic survey statistics do not allow direct cross-national comparison of drug dependence in the US and the UK, primarily because of a lack of uniformity across case definitions and methods of case ascertainment. Aims. The current study sought to re-estimate these prevalence values after calibration of case definitions (i. e., imposing methodological constraints to unify case definitions), to identify suspected determinants, and also to investigate symptom profiles among active cases. Method. Analyses of data from the US National House-hold Survey on Drug Abuse and the UK Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity were conducted. Prevalence of active drug dependence symptoms was estimated. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the magnitude of the association between suspected socio-demographic variables and drug dependence. Results. The prevalence of drug dependence was an estimated 1.4% in the US and 0.5% in the UK. This difference was somewhat attenuated when the effect of living in an urban setting was controlled. Symptom profiles among active cases were very similar. In both countries, being male, non-married, of a low socio-economic status (SES), and living in an urban setting were associated with an increased occurrence of drug dependence. Conclusion. There are US-UK differences in prevalence of active drug dependence beyond what available statistics imply and some of this difference can be explained by variations associated with living in urban and rural conditions.
KW - Drug use
KW - Epidemiology
KW - GEE
KW - Urban-rural differences
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U2 - 10.1007/s00127-003-0614-7
DO - 10.1007/s00127-003-0614-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 12664226
AN - SCOPUS:0038506249
SN - 0933-7954
VL - 38
SP - 165
EP - 172
JO - Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
JF - Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology
IS - 4
ER -