First use of multiple substances: identification of meaningful patterns.

Context: Understanding the process through which adolescents and young adults are trying legal and illegal substances is a crucial point for the development of tailored prevention and treatment programs. However, patterns of substance first use can be very complex when multiple substances are consid...

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Published in:Journal of Substance Use Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 118 - 131
Main Authors: Berchtold A, Jeannin A, Akre C, Michaud P, Suris J
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2010
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Apr2010
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        atl: First use of multiple substances: identification of meaningful patterns.
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          Berchtold A
          Jeannin A
          Akre C
          Michaud P
          Suris J
        affil: Research Group on Adolescent Health, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
      sug:
        subj:
          Age of Onset
          Substance Abuse Epidemiology
          Adolescence
          Analysis of Variance
          Cannabis
          Chi Square Test
          Cluster Analysis
          Cocaine
          Descriptive Statistics
          Discriminant Analysis
          Epidemiological Research
          Female
          Funding Source
          Heroin
          Human
          Lysergic Acid Diethylamide
          Male
          Post Hoc Analysis
          Retrospective Design
          Scales
          Secondary Analysis
          Street Drugs
          Substance Abuse Classification
          Summated Rating Scaling
          Surveys
          Switzerland
          Tobacco
          Young Adult
          Adolescent: 13-18 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: Context: Understanding the process through which adolescents and young adults are trying legal and illegal substances is a crucial point for the development of tailored prevention and treatment programs. However, patterns of substance first use can be very complex when multiple substances are considered, requiring reduction into a few meaningful number of categories. Data: We used data from a survey on adolescent and young adult health conducted in 2002 in Switzerland. Answers from 2212 subjects aged 19 and 20 were included. The first consumption ever of 10 substances (tobacco, cannabis, medicine to get high, sniff (volatile substances, and inhalants), ecstasy, GHB, LSD, cocaine, methadone, and heroin) was considered for a grand total of 516 different patterns. Methods: In a first step, automatic clustering was used to decrease the number of patterns to 50. Then, two groups of substance use experts, three social field workers, and three toxicologists and health professionals, were asked to reduce them into a maximum of 10 meaningful categories. Results: Classifications obtained through our methodology are of practical interest by revealing associations invisible to purely automatic algorithms. The article includes a detailed analysis of both final classifications, and a discussion on the advantages and limitations of our approach.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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