Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115891

Tracy R. Nichols, PhD, Department of Public Health, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 411 East 69th Street, KB-201, New York, NY 10021, 212-746-1270, trdiaz@med.cornell.edu, Amanda S. Birnbaum, PhD, MPH, Department of Public Health, Division of Prevention & Health Behavior, Weill Cornell Medical College, 411 East 69th Street, KB-209, New York, NY 10021, and Gilbert J. Botvin, PhD, Public Health, Cornell Weill Medical College, 411 E 69 St., New York, NY 10021.

Entry into middle school is a challenging time for adolescents, bringing forth new social situations and opportunities for increased independence, such as greater choice in how they spend their lunch period. During middle-school adolescents become less likely to eat lunch in school and more likely to buy lunch outside or skip lunch, resulting in a decrease of adult supervision. Adolescents' drug use also increases in middle school with the most recent national data showing 22% of adolescents have tried an illicit drug by eighth grade. Few studies have examined links between adolescent lunchtime practices and their subsequent drug use. This paper will present associations between lunch practices of urban middle school students in the first year of transitioning to middle school and their drug use over time.

Longitudinal data from the control condition of a large-scale randomized drug prevention trial will be presented. The sample consists of 1,702 multi-ethnic NYC adolescents, attending 6th grade at the start of the study. Self-report surveys on smoking, drinking and marijuana frequency along with lunchtime practices were administered annually along with biochemical validation of smoking. Logistic regressions conducted on each drug outcome show students who eat lunch outside of the school in the 6th grade are more likely to smoke (OR = 2.04; CI(95%) = 1.28-3.27), drink (OR = 1.56; CI(95%) = 1.02-2.39), and use marijuana (OR = 2.24; CI(95%) = 1.27-3.97) in the 8th grade. Implications for drug prevention strategies will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the presentation participants will
• understand adolescent lunchtime choices and behaviors in middle school;
• recognize the role lunchtime practices play in adolescent unsupervised time; and
• apply knowledge of the association between lunchtime practices and drug use initiation to the development of effective drug prevention strategies.

Keywords: Adolescents, Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.