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Multicenter Study
. 2017 Sep:72:114-119.
doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.03.024. Epub 2017 Mar 31.

Non-medical opioid use in youth: Gender differences in risk factors and prevalence

Vicki Osborne  1 , Mirsada Serdarevic  2 , Hannah Crooke  2 , Catherine Striley  2 , Linda B Cottler  2
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Non-medical opioid use in youth: Gender differences in risk factors and prevalence

Vicki Osborne et al. Addict Behav. 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Non-medical use (NMU) of prescription opioids in youth is of concern since they may continue this pattern into adulthood and become addicted or divert medications to others. Research into risk factors for NMU can help target interventions to prevent non-medical use of opioids in youth.

Method: The National Monitoring of Adolescent Prescription Stimulants Study (N-MAPSS) was conducted from 2008 to 2011. Participants 10-18years of age were recruited from entertainment venues in urban, rural and suburban areas of 10 US cities. Participants completed a survey including questions on their use of prescription opioids. NMU was defined as a non-labeled route of administration or using someone else's prescription. Information on age, gender, alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use was also collected. Summary descriptive, chi-square statistics and logistic regression were conducted using SAS 9.4.

Results: Of the 10,965 youth who provided information about past 30day prescription opioid use, prevalence of reported opioid use was 4.8% with 3.2% reported as NMU (n=345) and 1.6% as medical use (MU) only (n=180). More males than females (55.7% vs. 44.4%) reported opioid NMU (p<0.0001). Logistic regression revealed that among males (comparing NMU to MU only), current smokers were 4.4 times more likely to report opioid NMU than non-smokers (95% CI: 1.8, 10.7). Among females (comparing NMU to MU only), current smokers and alcohol users were more likely to report opioid NMU than those who had never smoked or used alcohol (OR=3.2, 95% CI: 1.4, 7.0 and OR=4.1, 95% CI: 1.7, 10.4, respectively).

Conclusions: These results suggest that further research on gender differences in opioid NMU is needed; interventions for opioid NMU may need to be gender specific to obtain the best results.

Keywords: Non-medical opioid use; Sex/gender differences; Youth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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