Trends in cannabis use disorders among racial/ethnic population groups in the United States.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:Minority groups generally experience more disparities than whites in behavioral
healthcare use. The population of racial/ethnic groups is growing faster than whites.
Given increased concerns of cannabis use (CU) and its associations with health conditions,
we examined national trends in cannabis use disorder (CUD) among adults aged ≥18 by
race/ethnicity. METHODS:Data were from the 2005-2013 National Surveys on Drug Use
and Health (N=340,456). We compared CU patterns and the conditional prevalence of
CUD among cannabis users by race/ethnicity to understand racial/ethnic variations
in CUD. RESULTS:Approximately 1.5% of adults met criteria for a CUD in the past year.
Regardless of survey year, cannabis dependence was more common than cannabis abuse,
representing 66% of adults with a CUD. Across racial/ethnic groups, the prevalence
of cannabis abuse and dependence remained stable during 2005-2013. In the total adult
sample, the odds of weekly CU, monthly CU, and cannabis dependence were greater among
blacks, native-Americans, and mixed-race adults than whites. Among cannabis users,
the odds of cannabis abuse and dependence were greater among blacks, native-Americans,
and Hispanics than whites. Logistic regression controlling for age, sex, education,
and survey year indicated an increased trend in monthly CU and weekly CU in the total
sample and among past-year cannabis users. Younger age, male sex, and low education
were associated with increased odds of cannabis dependence. CONCLUSIONS:The large
sample provides robust information that indicates a need for research to monitor CUD
and identify culturally appropriate interventions especially for targeting minority
populations.
Type
Journal articleSubject
HumansMarijuana Abuse
Population Surveillance
Cross-Sectional Studies
Marijuana Smoking
Databases, Factual
Adolescent
Adult
Middle Aged
Continental Population Groups
Ethnic Groups
United States
Female
Male
Young Adult
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19944Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.06.002Publication Info
Wu, Li-Tzy; Zhu, He; & Swartz, Marvin S (2016). Trends in cannabis use disorders among racial/ethnic population groups in the United
States. Drug and alcohol dependence, 165. pp. 181-190. 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.06.002. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19944.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Marvin Stanley Swartz
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
My major research interest is in examining the effectiveness of services for severely
mentally ill individuals, including factors that improve or impede good outcomes.
Current research includes: the effectiveness of involuntary outpatient commitment,
psychiatric advance directives, criminal justice outcomes for persons with mental
illnesses, violence and mental illness and antipsychotic medications. I also served
as member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandate
Li-Tzy Wu
Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Education/Training: Pre- and post-doctoral training in mental health service research,
psychiatric epidemiology (NIMH T32), and addiction epidemiology (NIDA T32) from Johns
Hopkins University School of Public Health (Maryland); Fellow of the NIH Summer Institute
on the Design and Conduct of Randomized Clinical Trials.Director: Duke Community Based
Substance Use Disorder Research Program.Research interests: COVID-19, Opioid misuse,
Opioid overdose, Opioid use disorder
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