Crack smoking among recent and non-recent Puerto Rican migrants residing in New York City: Migratory and acculturative differences

Background: Across Latino groups, migrant status and acculturation have been shown to predict drug use (including crack use), related risk behaviors, and HIV. We examined social, behavioral, and cultural factors associated with migrant status (recent vs. non-recent) and current crack smoking among Puerto Rican-born drug users in New York City (NYC). Methods: A street-intercept sample of drug users was recruited from impoverished neighborhoods in NYC. The analysis was restricted to Puerto Rican migrants and binary logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with migratory status and current crack smoking. Results: Of 202 participants recruited, 39.1% were recent migrants, and 45.6% were current crack smokers. In multivariate analyses, recent migrants (≤ 5 years in NYC) were older at the time of migration (AOR=1.5) compared to non-recent migrants. Current crack smokers were more likely to initiate crack use prior to migration (AOR=9.59) and to be non-recent migrants (AOR=0.24) compared to non-crack smokers. Acculturation was not significantly associated with migration or current crack use status. Conclusion: These data suggest that acculturation was not related to current crack smoking among Puerto Rican drug users in NYC. Age at migration to NYC may be increasing among Puerto Rican drug users suggesting the initiation of drug use, such as crack use, may occur prior to arrival to the U.S. and that the crack epidemic in Puerto Rico has declined. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings and longitudinally examine changes in drug use status over time among recent NYC migrants.