ED Visits Involving Substance Use among Adolescents in 2009

Background: Although substance misuse and abuse among adolescents is widely recognized as a public health problem, little is known about how substance use varied by age among adolescent. Methods: Data are from the 2009 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), a public health surveillance system, monitoring all drug-related ED visits among a nationally representative sample of US hospital. Three major substances-related (alcohol, illicit drugs, and nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals (NMUP)) ED visits are compared for two adolescent age groups: middle school ages 12-14 years old (n=28,068) and high school ages 15-17 (n=136,505).

Results: The proportions of ED visit involving substance for the middle school group were as follows: NMUP only (40.5%), alcohol only (25.9%), illicit only (19.6%), and combinations (14.0%). The proportions for the high school group were as follows: alcohol only (34.8%), NMUP only (26.0%), Illicit only (16.8%), and combinations (22.4%). The middle school group shows the highest percentage of visits where only NMUP drugs was involved, whereas the high school group shows the highest percentage of visits where only alcohol was involved (p<0.05). In addition, the high school group shows the higher percentage of visits where the combined substances were involved (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The types of substances involved in the ED visits differ dramatically between the two age groups. The reasons for this difference require further research.