Illicit drug abuse in second-generation immigrants: a register study in a national cohort of Swedish residents.
OBJECTIVE
This study investigates ethnic and socioeconomic risk factors for hospital admissions related to illicit drug abuse in second-generation immigrants in Sweden.


METHODS
Cox analyses of proportional hazards were used to estimate the relative risk of sociodemographic covariates in analyses of register data on hospital admissions because of illicit drug abuse during 1990-99. The study population was a national cohort of 1.25 million residents (aged 10-30 years).


RESULTS
Second-generation immigrants had two- to three fold higher age and sex-adjusted relative risks (RRs) for hospital admissions because of illicit drug use compared with the Swedish majority population with a limited variation between different ethnic groups. The RRs decreased greatly after the model was adjusted for socioeconomic indicators of the childhood household. Inter-country adoptees had the highest risk for hospital admission related to illicit drug abuse of all study groups after adjustment for sociodemographic variables (RR 2.8).


CONCLUSIONS
Second-generation immigrants are at particular risk for illicit drug abuse in Sweden. Adverse socioeconomic living conditions are very important in explaining this high risk.
Hjern
Anders
A
Centre for Epidemiology, National Board of Health and Welfare, Stockholm, Sweden. anders.hjern@sos.se
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012922:Social Change; D012923:Social Class; D012937:Social Mobility; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
D013287:Illicit Drugs