Developing interventions for Hispanics with substance use disorders

Despite our increased understanding of its determinants, substance abuse remains a major public health problem in the United States. Substantial evidence suggests that ethnic and cultural factors exert great influence on the prevalence, course, and treatment of substance use disorders (SUD), and that traditional Hispanic culture has a protective effect against the risk of SUD. However, these findings are based mainly on small or selected samples. The mechanisms of this protective effect, in particular, are poorly understood, both generally and as differentiated by gender. This impedes the development of targeted preventive and treatment interventions for this ethnic group. Data are being used from a large national survey of substance use and psychiatric disorders, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) to examine the effect of Hispanic ethnicity on the etiology and course of SUD, and treatment-seeking patterns of individuals suffering from SUD. The NESARC was conducted in 2001-2002, with follow up in 2004-2005. It included 43,093 respondents with oversampling for Hispanics. In addition, this study examines whether Hispanic ethnicity exerts the same effects across Hispanic subgroups. These findings may have widespread public health implications for Hispanics, the largest and fastest growing ethnic/racial minority group in the U.S. The data generated from this large, nationally representative dataset can serve as the basis for developing empirically-informed interventions to improve prevention and treatment of SUD in Hispanics.