Exposure to the World Trade Center attack and the use of cigarettes and alcohol among New York City public high-school students.
We examined exposure to the World Trade Center attack and changes in cigarette smoking and drinking among 2731 New York City public high-school students evaluated 6 months after the attack. Increased drinking was associated with direct exposure to the World Trade Center attack (P < .05). Increased smoking was not directly associated with exposure to the World Trade Center attack but was marginally significantly associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (P= .06). Our findings suggest that targeted substance-use interventions for youths may be warranted after large-scale disasters.
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-NYSPI, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 43, New York, NY 10032, USA. pw11@columbia.edu
Ping
P
Wu
Cristiane S
CS
Duarte
Donald J
DJ
Mandell
Bin
B
Fan
Xinhua
X
Liu
Cordelia J
CJ
Fuller
George
G
Musa
Michael
M
Cohen
Patricia
P
Cohen
Christina W
CW
Hoven
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D047851:September 11 Terrorist Attacks / Q000523:psychology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students