Abstract
Background: Alcohol use and illicit drug use peak during young adulthood (around 18–29 years of age), but comparatively little is known about polydrug use in nationally representative samples of young adults. Drawing on a nationally representative cross-sectional survey (Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey), this study examines polydrug use patterns and associated psychosocial risk factors among young adults (n = 3,333; age 19–29).Method: The use of a broad range of licit and illicit drugs were examined, including alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens, ecstasy, ketamine, GHB, inhalants, steroids, barbiturates, meth/amphetamines, heroin, methadone/buprenorphine, other opiates, painkillers, and tranquilizers/sleeping pills. Latent class analysis was employed to identify patterns of polydrug use.Results: Polydrug use in this sample was best described using a 5-class solution. The majority of young adults predominantly used alcohol only (52.3%), alcohol and tobacco (34.18%). The other classes were cannabis, ecstasy, and licit drug use (9.4%), cannabis, amphetamine derivative, and licit drug use (2.8%), and sedative and alcohol use (1.3%). Young adult males with low education and/or high income were most at risk of polydrug use.Conclusion: Almost half of young adults reported polydrug use, highlighting the importance of post-high school screening for key risk factors and polydrug use profiles, and the delivery of early intervention strategies targeting illicit drugs.
Highlights
Young adulthood (18–29 years) is a high risk time for the use and misuse of licit and illicit substances, relative to other age groups [1]
These targeted studies are important because they highlight the near universal patterns of polydrug use that occur in specific populations [9, 10], and the substantially higher risks to mental and physical health faced by polydrug users compared to single drug users [16,17,18]
A 3-class solution attained the lowest value of Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), and a 5-class solution attained the lowest value of Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Sample Size Adjusted Bayesian Information Criterion (SSABIC)
Summary
Young adulthood (18–29 years) is a high risk time for the use and misuse of licit and illicit substances, relative to other age groups [1]. Much of this research has been done on relatively small convenience samples (e.g., street-based, drug injecting, emergency room, and club patrons), where multiple drugs are frequently used consecutively or simultaneously, often for their perceived counteracting or complementary effects [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15] These targeted studies are important because they highlight the near universal patterns of polydrug use that occur in specific populations [9, 10], and the substantially higher risks to mental and physical health faced by polydrug users compared to single drug users [16,17,18].
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