System Maintenance Notice

Please note that maintenance work is scheduled between 4 AM and 5 AM - CET. During this time, you may experience reduced performance. Thanks for your patience.

Publications

Journal Article Ahead of print 1 citation

PubMed: 42464603 DOI: 10.1111/add.70548

Weighted prevalence of biochemically verified substance use in healthy adolescents across the USA.

Addiction

Authors: Natasha E Wade, Yajuan Si, Susan F Tapert, Janosch Linkersdörfer, Krista M Lisdahl, Hailley R Moore, Laila Tally, Biplabendu Das, Marilyn A Huestis, Alexander L Wallace, Ryan M Sullivan, Veronica Szpak, Le Zhang, Laura Ziemer, Wesley K Thompson

Affiliations

  • Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
  • Survey Research Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
  • Center for Multimodal Imaging & Genetics, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
  • Department of Psychology, Univeristy of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
  • Center for Children and Families and Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
  • Huestis & Smith Toxicology, LLC, Fredericksburg, VA, USA.
  • Center for Population Neuroscience and Genetics, Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Adolescent substance use is a significant public health concern, though the scope of the problem is difficult to ascertain given reliance on self-reported substance use information. Recent, large cohort studies in adolescents and young adults suggest underreporting of substance use. Analyses here aimed to determine concordance between self-reported substance use and biochemical verification through hair samples and to estimate prevalence of the three most reported substances used by adolescents.

DESIGN

Observational cohort longitudinal study design. Liquid chromatography and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC or GC/MS-MS) were used to test hair samples for biochemically verified substance use, with results compared with self-reported substance use. Multi-step weighting methods estimated prevalence trends of cannabis, alcohol and nicotine use over time, adjusting for discrepancies in sample representation due to recruitment demography, missed visits and hair sample testing.

SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

Data came from the United States nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (n = 11 868; age 9-10 at baseline, age 15-16 at wave 6). Participants were followed annually, with data here from 2016 to 2024.

MEASUREMENTS

Hair samples objectively detected at least several days of substance use in a subsample of participants (n samples = 11 865; n = 6133 unique participants). Participants self-reported past 3-month substance use. Sociodemographic, individual and environmental-level factors were included in inverse propensity weights to estimate prevalence rates of cannabis, alcohol and nicotine use in teens.

FINDINGS

Concordance between self-report and toxicological data improved with age (for cannabis, ages 11-12 = <1%; ages 15-16 = 45%). Weighted estimates of biochemically verified substance use indicated 7.1% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 6.0-8.3] of 15-16 year olds engaged in biochemically detected cannabis use, 0.2% (95% CI = 0.1-0.4) used alcohol and 4.7% (95% CI = 3.7-6.0) used nicotine.

CONCLUSIONS

In United States youth, the concordance between self-reported substance use patterns and biochemical verification improves with age. Biochemical verification reflects substantive cannabis and nicotine use by United States youth aged 15-16, supporting combining toxicological and self-report data to improve identification of substance use in youth when possible.

MeSH

Research Design, Aged, Adolescent, Prevalence, Nicotine