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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

F.C. Sung, C.Y. Chen, H.J. Cheng, Y.M. Tsai, Y.H. Wen, H.Y. Lane, and M.H. Yang. Institute of Environmental Health, China Medical University, 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 404, Taiwan, 011-886-4-2205-4070, fcsung@mail.cmu.edu.tw

The prevalence of adolescent drug abuse has increased for 10 times higher in the recent decade in Taiwan. The authors conducted a case-control study to investigate the risk of developing narcotics use among children associated with their history of smoking and alcohol use. With approval from legal authority, we identified 160 adolescents of 14-18 years old who were receiving treatment at institutions for juvenile delinquency correction because of using narcotics. Controls were 320 children of similar ages randomly selected from schools of the same community. The study participants reported their family background and history of using drug, alcohol and tobacco in an anonymous questionnaire. The most prevalently used drug among cases was amphetamine (69.8%), followed by K-tamine (51.6%), MDMA (42.8%) and heroin (30.8%). Only 2.0% of controls admitted the use of drugs. Smoking rates were much greater in both cases (81.3%) and their fathers (79.4%) than in controls (4.7%) and their fathers (45.6%). Cases also had higher rate of drinking than controls (49.4% vs. 14.7%). However, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that only smoking was significantly associated with the narcotics use with an odds ratio of 44.7 (95% confidence interval = 18.2-109.7) for regular smokers. Alcohol use and parental smoking were not significant factors in the regression analysis. This study confirms that smoking increases the risk of developing drug abuse in children in Taiwan, a finding consistent with other studies reported in western countries.

Learning Objectives:

• This study shows that primary prevention of drug abuse should consider children who swore as the high risk population.

Keywords: Drug Abuse, Smoking

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered