Six Patterns Define Young Adult Substance Use in the US
Among six distinct patterns of substance use identified in young adults in the United States in 2019, nicotine vaping and cannabis smoking were the most common, new research showed. Additionally, stress, boredom, and loneliness were linked to specific substance use patterns.
METHODOLOGY:
To identify patterns of substance use at the day level and potential associations with mood, researchers analyzed data of nearly 600 young adults (mean age, 19.3 years; 66% women; 70% White) who reported alcohol use in the previous 30 days as 12th grade participants in the Monitoring the Future study (2018) and completed daily surveys for 14 days in a 2019 follow-up study.
Individuals reported alcohol, cannabis, and/or nicotine/tobacco use across 3086 days (mean, 4 substance use days contributed).
Stress, boredom, loneliness, and type of day (special occasion or difficult day) were included as covariates.
TAKEAWAY:
Six distinct patterns were identified: Nicotine vaping (34% of substance use days), cannabis smoking (24%), alcohol only (17%), cannabis vaping (12%), multiple tobacco combustibles (7%), and multimodal cannabis use (cannabis smoking plus cannabis vaping, 7%). In all, 52% of participants experienced more than one type of substance use day.
Mean stress, boredom, and loneliness levels were higher on days of multimodal cannabis use than on most other days of substance use.
Days of alcohol use showed lower levels of stress, boredom, and loneliness, with these days more likely than other substance use days to be a special occasion or weekend.
Days characterized by multimodal cannabis use had higher probabilities of nicotine vaping and alcohol use, suggesting an increased risk for acute harms and increased risk for cannabis use disorder, the researchers noted.
IN PRACTICE:
'Understanding these patterns is important for developing intervention strategies that are responsive to specific substance use on a given day,' the investigators wrote.
'Just-in-time or adaptive interventions that aim to be delivered during moments of stress, boredom, or loneliness, and help individuals to identify and develop alternative coping strategies in that moment may be particularly salient for reducing high-risk patterns of cannabis use,' they added.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Rebecca J. Evans-Polce, PhD, Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health, School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was published online on April 29 in Addictive Behaviors .
LIMITATIONS:
This study relied on self-reported substance use data, which may be affected by social desirability bias or memory recall issues. Additionally, it focused on individuals with a mean age of 19 years and was conducted in 2019, potentially limiting the generalizability of the study to young adults of other ages or to different time periods. Low prevalence hindered the inclusion of substance use beyond alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine/tobacco.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was funded by research grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Cancer Institute. The investigators reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.
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