BETHESDA, MD. – Younger Hispanics born in the United States were more likely to report nonmedical use of prescription drugs than were their foreign-born counterparts, according to findings from a study of more than 2,000 people.
No significant differences in nonmedical prescription-drug use were found between immigrants who had been in the United States for fewer than 5 years and those who had lived there for 5 or more years, suggesting that duration of residency did not change the rates of nonmedical use, noted Yehuda Neumark, Ph.D., who presented the data at the annual conference of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse.
The conference was sponsored by Brown Medical School, Providence, R.I.
Minority groups, including Hispanics, “tend to face greater medical and social adverse consequences of substance use.
“Therefore, understanding the factors that determine the origin and course of substance use disorders within these minority groups is essential for the development of primary and secondary prevention services,” he said.
Dr. Neumark, of Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health, Jerusalem, and his colleagues used data from the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study of 2,554 noninstitutionalized individuals aged 18 years and older who lived in the United States.
The study gathered information on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders and use of mental health services, but participants also were asked about lifetime and past-year use of prescription drugs with or without a recommendation from a provider.
The lifetime and past-year prevalence of nonmedical use of prescription drugs among Hispanics in the United States was 8.1% and 1.6%, respectively, and both of these prevalences were higher in U.S.-born Hispanics (14.4% and 2.7%) than in immigrant Hispanics (4.3% and 0.9%). Hispanic men were more likely than were women to report nonmedical use of these drugs, as were all individuals aged 18–29 and 30–44 years. Income and region of residence were not associated with use.
After controlling for relevant confounding factors, both groups–U.S.-born and immigrant–were more likely to report nonmedical prescription-drug use if they had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder (adjusted odds ratio, 1.9), chronic pain (AOR, 2.9), or alcohol dependence (AOR, 3.4). The association between nonmedical use and an anxiety disorder diagnosis was not significant (AOR, 1.5).
The researchers said it was important to understand the mechanisms driving the factors that affect the prevalence of nonmedical use of prescription drugs in immigrant and U.S.-born Hispanics to be able to develop and better target preventive and treatment programs.
Among those factors were migration patterns, country of origin, values that reinforce substance use, acculturation gaps, maladaptation, and lack of social capital.
Dr. Neumark noted that this was particularly important given that the Hispanic population in the United States is projected to reach 30% of the American population in 2050 and that this trend is being driven “primarily by a large influx of socially vulnerable” Hispanic immigrants and their U.S.-born children.
None of the researchers reported any financial disclosures.