Moderating effect of illicit drug use on the relationship between sexual behaviours and prevalence of HIV or sexually transmitted infections

Young people aged 15–24 years account for half of all new sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States. The aim of this study was to examine the cross-sectional associations of factors linked to STIs among US young adults (18–25 years). This study used the 2015–2018 pooled National Survey on Drug Use and Health data on 55,690 young adults. Almost 3.4% of the respondents reported having an STI in the past year. Among the participants, 38.4% used illicit drugs and 3.7% reported a history of delinquency in the past year. In the survey-weighted logistic regression model, odds for contracting STIs in the preceding year was higher among adults aged 22–25 versus 18–21 years (OR:1.26, 95%CI:1.12–1.42); male versus female (OR:2.44, 95%CI:2.11–2.82); non-Hispanic African American versus non-Hispanic White (OR:1.77, 95%CI:1.55–2.02); widowed/separated/divorced (OR:1.93, 95%CI:1.36–2.75) and never married (OR:1.29, 95%CI:1.07–1.55) versus married; full-time/part-time employed (aOR:1.17, 95% CI:1.04–1.31) compared to unemployed/other; history of delinquency (OR:2.31, 95%CI:1.89–2.83); and use of illicit drugs in the last year (OR:3.10, 95%CI:2.77–3.47). High incidence of illicit drug use by the young adults and its strong association with STI incidence in recent years warrant special attention. Tailored preventive measures should be focused on key predictors.

Download Full-text

Discrepancies Between Women??s Personal Interview Data and Medical Record Documentation of Illicit Drug Use, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and HIV Infection

Medical Care ◽

10.1097/00005650-199210000-00009 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 30 (10) ◽

pp. 965-971 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Patricia O??Campo ◽

Melanie A. De Boer ◽

Ruth R. Faden ◽

Andrea C. Gielen ◽

Nancy Kass ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Hiv Infection ◽

Sexually Transmitted Diseases ◽

Medical Record ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Illicit Drug Use ◽

Interview Data ◽

Personal Interview ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Medical Record Documentation

Download Full-text

A twin study of early cannabis use and subsequent use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291704002545 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 34 (7) ◽

pp. 1227-1237 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

ARPANA AGRAWAL ◽

MICHAEL C. NEALE ◽

CAROL A. PRESCOTT ◽

KENNETH S. KENDLER

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Illicit Drugs ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Strong Association ◽

Model Fitting ◽

Illicit Drug Use ◽

Cannabis Use ◽

Twin Design ◽

The Relationship ◽

Discordant Twin

Introduction. Cannabis use is strongly associated with the use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs. Gateway and common liabilities models have been employed to explain this relationship. We sought to examine this association using a combination of the discordant twin design and modeling methods.Method. We assess the relationship between early cannabis use and the subsequent use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs in a population-based sample of male and female twin pairs using four analyses: (i) analysis of the association between early cannabis use and other illicit drug use and abuse/dependence in the entire sample of twins, (ii) assessment of the influence of early cannabis use in twin 1 on twin 2's use or abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs, (iii) use of twin pairs discordant for early cannabis use in a discordant twin design and (iv) a model-fitting procedure.Results. We found: (i) a strong association between early cannabis use and use and abuse/dependence of other illicit drugs in the sample, (ii) twin 1's early cannabis use is significantly associated with the twin 2's other illicit drug use, (iii) the role of correlated genetic factors with some evidence for a causal influence, and (iv) the correlated liabilities model fits the data well.Conclusions. Early cannabis use is strongly associated with other illicit drug use and abuse/dependence. The relationship arises largely due to correlated genetic and environmental influences with persisting evidence for some causal influences.

Download Full-text

The Role of Drugs in Workplace Injuries: Is Drug Testing Appropriate?

Journal of Drug Issues ◽

10.1177/002204269502500404 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 703-722 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Scott Macdonald

Keyword(s):

Drug Use ◽

Drug Testing ◽

Illicit Drug ◽

Household Survey ◽

Illicit Drug Use ◽

Alcohol Problems ◽

Age Group ◽

Workplace Injuries ◽

The Relationship

In the past decade, many employers have adopted drug-testing programs to reduce workplace injuries. However, little scientific evidence shows that drug use is a significant and substantial cause of total workplace injuries. The purpose of this study was to empirically assess the role of drugs and alcohol in causing workplace injuries. Questionnaires were received from 882 Ontario employees in a household survey. Results showed that many variables were significantly related to job injuries. The variables were ranked according to the relative importance of each variable's contribution to total job injuries. Alcohol problems, licit drug use, and illicit drug use ranked 7, 11, and 12 respectively among a group of 12 significant variables. In order to examine the likelihood that drug use was a cause of job injuries, the relationship between job injuries and alcohol problems, licit drug use, and illicit drug use was examined across categories of third variables. For age, the relationship between drug use and injuries remained strong for the youngest age group, but disappeared for the oldest age group. Logistic regression analysis confirmed the plausibility of noncausal explanations of job injuries for illicit drug use, but not for alcohol problems or licit drug use. Overall, the results indicated that illicit drug use does not appear to be a major cause of job injuries. The implications of these results for drug-testing programs are discussed.

Download Full-text