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- About Us
- Introduction
- Substance Use
- Differences in Substance Use and Receipt of Substance Abuse Prevention Education and Services, by Disability Category
- Differences in Substance Use and Receipt of Substance Abuse Prevention Education and Services, by Demographic Characteristics
- Summary
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- References
PDF & Related Info
Substance Use
NLTS2 asked young adults with disabilities to report the frequency with which they smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol in the past 30 days. In addition, they were asked to report use of illegal drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, and any other illegal drugs.
Smoking
Seven in 10 young adults with disabilities (70 percent) reported not having smoked4 in the past 30 days (figure 1). One in five (20 percent) reported daily smoking during the past 30 days. Cigarette smoking rates reported by young adults with disabilities did not differ significantly5 when compared with rates reported by young adults in the general population. It should be noted that most comparisons with the general population were derived from a study conducted several years earlier than when NLTS2 data were collected and with different data collection methods and participation rates; general population6 comparisons should be interpreted with these limitations in mind.
Among young adults with disabilities who reported smoking, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day was 9 cigarettes7, with numbers ranging from 2 cigarettes or fewer (21 percent) to 15 cigarettes or more (26 percent). In comparison, young adults in the general population who reported smoking smoked, on average, 12 cigarettes per day (p < .05)8, 9, and were more likely to smoke 15 or more cigarettes per day than those with disabilities (37 percent vs. 26 percent, p < .05).
Alcohol Consumption
More than half (54 percent) of young adults with disabilities reported not having consumed alcohol in the past 30 days.10 However, alcohol consumption was the most frequent type of substance use reported by young adults with disabilities (compared with cigarette, marijuana, cocaine, and other illegal drug use; p < .001 for all comparisons). Approximately 2 in 10 (22 percent) reported drinking alcohol on 1 or 2 of the past 30 days (figure 2). Ten percent reported having at least one alcoholic drink on 3 to 5 of the past 30 days, and 12 percent reported drinking on 6 to 19 of the past 30 days. Two percent of young adults with disabilities reported drinking on 20 or more of the past 30 days.
Young adults with disabilities were less likely than their peers in the general population11, 12 to report having had an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days (46 percent vs. 56 percent, p < .01). They also were less likely to report consuming alcohol on most of the past 30 days (at least one drink each day in 20 to 30 days; 2 percent vs. 5 percent, p < .01).
Illegal Drug Use
Marijuana Use. More than 8 in 10 young adults with disabilities (84 percent) reported not using marijuana in the past 30 days13 (figure 3). They were less likely to report marijuana use than were young adults in the general population14 (16 percent vs. 27 percent, p < .001).
Five percent of young adults with disabilities reported using marijuana 1 or 2 times in the past 30 days, an additional 6 percent reported using marijuana 3 to 9 times, and 6 percent reported using marijuana 10 or more times. In comparison, more than twice as many young adults in the general population reported using marijuana 10 or more times in the past 30 days (13 percent vs. 6 percent, p < .001).
Cocaine Use. Almost all young adults with disabilities (98 percent) reported not using any form of cocaine, including powder, crack, or freebase, in the past 30 days.15 No significant differences were reported in the rates of cocaine use between young adults with disabilities and young adults in the general population.
Other Illegal Drug Use. Three percent of young adults with disabilities reported using illegal drugs other than marijuana or cocaine, such as LSD, PCP, ecstasy, mushrooms, speed, ice, heroin, or pills taken without a doctor's prescription.16 Compared with the reported 7 percent rate of substance use in the general population of young adults, those with disabilities were less likely to report use of illegal drugs other than marijuana or cocaine in the past 30 days (3 percent, p < .01).
Any Illegal Drug Use. Overall, the majority of young adults with disabilities (83 percent) reported not using any illegal drugs in the past 30 days. Young adults in the general population were more likely than those with disabilities to report the use of any illegal drugs (28 percent vs. 6 percent, p < .001).
Receipt of Substance Abuse Prevention Education and Services
When the young adults included in the NLTS2 sample attended high school, their schools were asked to report whether they offered substance abuse education. Almost three-quarters of the students attended high schools that reported offering this type of education. In a given school year,17 more than half of the students were reported to receive substance abuse prevention education or services from their high schools (59 percent).
5 Only statistically significant differences are mentioned in the text of this fact sheet.
6 All general population comparisons related to smoking in this fact sheet are based on data from the public-use version of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Wave III, 2001-02 (Udry 2003). Comparison analyses of these weighted data include a subset of approximately 2,000 respondents, ages 18 through 21.
7 Young adults were asked, "On the days you smoke, about how many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?"
8 Several types of analyses were conducted for this fact sheet, including between-group means, between-group percentages, and within-subject percentages. Because of the weighted nature of NLTS2 data, equality between the mean values of the responses to a single survey item in two disjoint subpopulations was based on a test statistic essentially equivalent to a two-sample t test for independent samples using weighted data. Sample sizes for each group being compared were never less than 30. For a two-tailed test, the test statistic was the square of the t statistic, which then followed an approximate chisquare distribution with one degree of freedom [i.e., an F(1, infinity) distribution].
9 No special adjustments were made to account for multiple comparisons. Given the number of comparisons made in this fact sheet, readers are cautioned to consider the possibility of false positives in interpreting the data.
10 Young adults were asked, "During the last 30 days, on how many days did you have at least one drink of alcohol?"
11 All general population comparisons related to alcohol use in this fact sheet are based on weighted data from the public-use version of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH.), 2005 survey (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2006). Comparison analyses of these weighted data included a subset of approximately 55,905 respondents ages 18 through 21 years old.
12 The specific wording of the substance use questions in NLTS2 was derived predominantly from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Wave I survey; consequently, general population comparisons in this fact sheet are based primarily on the young adult follow-up to Add Health (Wave III). The exception is alcohol use, for which the general population comparison is derived from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2005 survey, because different time references (alcohol use in the "past 30 days" in NLTS2 compared with the "past 12 months" in Add Health) precluded the use of the Add Health Wave III dataset for this substance.
13 Young adults were asked, "During the last 30 days, how many times did you use marijuana?"
14 All general population comparisons related to illegal drug use in this fact sheet are based on data from the public-use version of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), Wave III, 2001-02 (Udry 2003), responses calculated for 18- to 21-year-olds.
15 Young adults were asked, "During the last 30 days, how many times did you use any form of cocaine, including powder, crack, or freebase?"
16 Young adults were asked, "During the last 30 days, how many times did you use any other kind of illegal drugs, such as LSD, PCP, ecstasy, mushrooms, speed, ice, heroin, or pills that you took without a doctor's prescription?"
17 Data from the NLTS2 student's school program survey, Wave 1 (2001) and Wave 2 (2002); responses calculated or young adults included in this fact sheet. Completed school program surveys were returned for 60 percent of eligible sample members. School staff who were most familiar with the student's program were asked to "indicate whether this student will have received substance abuse prevention education or services this school year."