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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Hyeouk Chris Hahm, PhD¹, Frank Wong, PHD², and Zhihuan Jennifer Huang, PhD². (1) School of Social Work, Boston univeristy, 264 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, 617-353-3925, hahm@bu.edu, (2) Dept of International Health -- NHS, Georgetown university, St Mary's Hall 224, 3700 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC, DC 20057

Objectives: Substance use has been shown to be more prevalent in sexual minority groups. However, little is known about the patterns of substance use among AAPI sexual minority women and men. This is the first investigation of substance use among AAPI sexual minorities using a population-based design.

Methods: Data from a nationally representative sample of AAPI adolescents enrolled in Wave II (1996; ages 13-20) and wave III (2001; 19-26) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed. Chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression analysis were conducted with considerations of the complex survey design.

Results: During adolescence, sexual minority had significantly higher prevalence of cigarette use (20.1% vs. 10.1%) compared to heterosexual adolescents. During young adulthood, there was no significant difference between these two groups in terms of cigarette use, alcohol use, and binge drinking. However, sexual minority young adults was significantly more likely to use marijuana (30. 6% vs. 12. 9%) and cocaine (30.7 % vs. 13.3 %). In multivariate analyses in predicting young adulthoods' substance use, sexual minority were 140% more likely to use marijuana (OR=2.4) and 130% to use cocaine after adjustment of gender, education, age, birth place, wave II marijuana use, smoking use, and alcohol use (OR=2.3).

Conclusions: AAPI sexual minority group is at higher risk of substance use during both adolescence and adulthood compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Culturally appropriate intervention targeted to the different risk patterns in AAPI sexual minority adolescents and young adults are needed.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)Describe the longitudinal prevalence and incidence of Asian American sexual minority women and men’s illegal and legal substance use using nationally representative samples
• 2)Explore risk factors in Asian American sexual minority members on substance abuse.
• 3)Discuss the limitations and indication of study results and their implications on future studies.
• 4)Discuss possible intervention strategies that will reduce substance use/abuse among Asian American sexual minority female and male.

Keywords: Asian and Pacific Islander, Substance Abuse

Related Web page: www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered