Racial discrimination and substance use disorder among a nationally representative sample of women

Substance use increases risk for high blood pressure, heart problems, sexually transmitted diseases, automobile injuries, disability, death, crime, domestic violence, and lost workplace productivity. There is growing evidence of the association between discrimination on health; however, gaps in the literature remain. Studies are often geographically restricted and have limited generalizability. The purpose of the current study is to examine if racial discrimination is associated with increased substance use disorder among African American women. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the association between discrimination and substance use among a nationally representative sample of African American women. Analysis accounted for the complex multistage clustered design of the sample, unequal probabilities of selection, nonresponse, and poststratification using STATA. Findings indicate that the prevalence of lifetime alcohol abuse and dependency (but not drug abuse or dependency) was significantly higher among women reporting racial discrimination compared to other types of discrimination or no discrimination (p<.01). Preliminary multivariate analysis suggests a trend between the frequency of racial discrimination events and increased likelihood of lifetime alcohol abuse and dependency. However, lifetime arrests significantly increased the odds of substance use disorders.