Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs:
Results from the 1994 and 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse
6.2
Sociodemographic Characteristics Related to Illicit Drug Use
Table 6.1 presents the logistic regression
model results on the relationships between workers=
sociodemographic characteristics and the relative risks of their current
illicit drug use. The major findings include:
In both 1994 and 1997, younger workers (18-24
years old), were found to be more likely to report current illicit drug
use than older workers (25-49 years old).
In both 1994 and 1997, male workers were about
two times more likely than female workers to report that they used any
illicit drug in the past month.
The highest level of education that workers
attained appeared to have no effect on self-reported current illicit drug
use in 1994. However, education did have an effect in 1997; workers who
had graduated from college were significantly much less likely (OR = 0.45)
to report that they were current illicit drug users than those workers
whose education level was below high school graduate.
Compared to workers whose annual personal
incomes were less than $9,000, workers whose incomes were between $9,000
and $74,999 were significantly less likely to report that they used any
illicit drug in the past month. However, no significant difference was
found between workers whose incomes were less than $9,000 and workers whose
incomes were $75,000 or above in their self-reported current drug use behavior.
In 1994, current illicit drug users were significantly
more likely to be concentrated at workplaces with less than 25 employees
than in workplaces of larger size. However, in 1997, establishment size
did not make any significant difference in workers=
current illicit drug use. This result suggests that from 1994 to 1997,
the proportion of workers who used any illicit drug in the past month increased
in both medium-size and large-size workplaces.
In 1997, after age, gender, race/ethnicity,
education, income, and establishment size were controlled statistically,
workers in the west region were found to be almost two times (OR=1.82)
more likely than workers in the northeast region to report that they were
current illicit drug users.
SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is
the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and
availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and
mental health services in the United
States.