NCJ Number
154366
Journal
Journal of the American Medical Association Volume: 269 Issue: 8 Dated: (February 24, 1993) Pages: 993-997,1034
Date Published
1993
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Data from the 8,814 participants in the 1988 National Household Survey of Drug Abuse were reanalyzed to compare racial/ethnic group differences in crack cocaine smoking.
Abstract
The participants were all ages 12 and older. Social and environmental risk factors that might confound racial comparisons were held constant through an epidemiologic strategy involving the poststratification of participants into neighborhood risk sets. The analysis used a conditional logistic regression model to estimate the relative odds of crack use by race/ethnicity. Results revealed that, given similar social and environmental conditions, crack use does not strongly depend on race-specific personal factors. Findings did not refute previous analyses, but provided evidence that prevalence estimates unadjusted for social environmental risk factors may lead to misunderstanding about the role of race or ethnicity in the epidemiology of crack use. Future research should seek to determine which characteristics of the neighborhood social environment are important and potentially modifiable determinants of drug use. Figure, table, 11 references, and accompanying editorial comment (Author abstract modified)