Agreement between two measures of drug use in a low-prevalence population.
The present study examined the agreement between two measures of prevalence of drug use in the community: self-report and specific pharmacological analyses of urine samples. The data were collected in the context of a random community survey of health practices and attitudes. A random 20% of the households participating in the health study were targeted for biochemical assay. Compliance with urine delivery was relatively high at 79%. Urine samples were screened qualitatively for cannabinoids and benzodiazepines using the enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT) (Syva Diagnostics, Palo Alto, CA). Screening for pharmaceuticals used a standard thin-layer chromatography (TLC) technique. Agreement between the self-report and biochemical assay estimates of prevalence was statistically significant (p less than .05). While self-report of substance use is not a perfect measure of consumption, it remains a relatively economical and reasonably accurate method of obtaining estimates of substance use in community samples.
Hancock
L
L
Faculty of Medicine, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
Hennrikus
D
D
Henry
D A
DA
Sanson-Fisher
R
R
Walsh
R
R
Lewis
J H
JH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000652:urine; D002186:Cannabinoids / Q000652:urine; D002845:Chromatography; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000652:urine*; D007118:Immunoassay; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D015995:Prevalence; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*
D002186:Cannabinoids; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D001569:Benzodiazepines