Objectives: The attendee will be able to: Discuss the programmatic implications for intervention from a statewide administration of a survey of drug use and risk and protective factors; Describe the prevalence of alcohol and other drug use among a statewide sample of adolescents; Describe the risk of depression, antisocial behavior, sensation seeking behavior and academic failure associated with alcohol and other drug use.
The researchers will discuss the results of the 2005 Arkansas Prevention Needs Assessment Survey (APNA). There were a total of 58,385 students from grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 who participated in the survey. Data were analyzed on 53,489 valid surveys. The participants were equally male and female, but the majority were white (65%), 17% were African American and 7% were Hispanic. The remaining participants were categorized as ‘other'. Results will be reported for selected substance use rates for the past 30 days and lifetime use. The Prevention Needs Assessment survey instrument was designed to measure adolescent substance use, anti-social behavior and the risk and protective factors associated with these problems. A cut-point score was established and used to divide the participants into two groups, more at risk or less at risk. Odds ratios were calculated for selected drug use behaviors and outcome variables of depression, anti-social behavior, sensation seeking behaviors, and academic failure. All odds ratios were elevated for the drug use category indicating greater risk of the outcome variable was associated with drug use. For the alcohol use variables, odds ratio scores ranged from 1.5 for depression and use within the past 30 days to 4.4 for anti-social behavior and past 30 days use. This means that in this study, those who drank alcohol in the past 30 days were 1.5 times more likely to score high on the depression scale and 4.4 times more likely to score high on the anti-social behavior scale than those who reported not drinking alcohol in the past 30 days. Additional odds ratios will be reported for selected other drugs. The implications of these findings and the usefulness of the APNA data to intervention planning will be discussed.