The role of economic and cultural status as risk indicators for alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents.
BACKGROUND
A number of reports suggest that Aboriginal cultural status is a major risk indicator for drug and alcohol use. The primary purpose of the present paper was to determine whether Aboriginal cultural status is independently associated with risk behaviours, such as marijuana use and alcohol abuse, among youth after multivariate adjustment for other factors, such as socioeconomic status.


METHODS
Every student between grades 5 and 8 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was asked to complete a questionnaire in February 2007. Logistic regression was used to determine the independent risk indicators associated with alcohol abuse and marijuana use.


RESULTS
Four thousand ninety-three youth participated in the school health survey. At the cross-tabulation level, cultural status and neighbourhood income were both strongly associated with alcohol and marijuana use. After multivariate adjustment, the association between Aboriginal cultural status and alcohol abuse was not statistically significant (crude OR=3.52 to adjusted OR=0.80). For marijuana use, the association was significantly reduced (crude OR=9.91 to adjusted OR=2.79). After controlling for all other variables, results showed that low-income youth were 103% more likely to get drunk at least once and were 163% more likely to have tried marijuana at least once.


CONCLUSIONS
To be more successful, future policies directed toward reducing risk behaviours among youth should consider neighbourhood income characteristics.
Lemstra
Mark
M
Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer, Saskatoon Health Region, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Neudorf
Cory
C
Nannapaneni
Ushasri
U
Bennett
Norman
N
Scott
Christina
C
Kershaw
Tanis
T