title: Nonmedical prescription drug use among US young adults by educational attainment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about nonmedical use of prescription drugs among non-college-attending young adults in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were drawn from 36,781 young adults (ages 18-22 years) from the 2008-2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health public use files. The adjusted main effects for current educational attainment, along with its interaction with gender and race/ethnicity, were considered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to those attending college, non-college-attending young adults with at least and less than a HS degree had a higher prevalence of past-year nonmedical use of prescription opioids [NMUPO 13.1 and 13.2 %, respectively, vs. 11.3 %, adjusted odds ratios (aORs) 1.21 (1.11-1.33) and 1.25 (1.12-1.40)], yet lower prevalence of prescription stimulant use. Among users, regardless of drug type, non-college-attending youth were more likely to have past-year disorder secondary to use [e.g., NMUPO 17.4 and 19.1 %, respectively, vs. 11.7 %, aORs 1.55 (1.22-1.98) and 1.75 (1.35-2.28)]. Educational attainment interacted with gender and race: (1) among nonmedical users of prescription opioids, females who completed high school but were not enrolled in college had a significantly greater risk of opioid disorder (compared to female college students) than the same comparison for men; and (2) the risk for nonmedical use of prescription opioids was negligible across educational attainment groups for Hispanics, which was significantly different than the increased risk shown for non-Hispanic whites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a need for young adult prevention and intervention programs to target nonmedical prescription drug use beyond college campuses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, 722 West 168th Street, Rm. 509, New York, NY, 10032, USA, ssm2183@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Silvia S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: June H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Lian-Yu
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Deysia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: Katherine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Keyes
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cerdá
authors.forename: Carla L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Storr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D063487:Prescription Drug Misuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants