Long-Term Prevalence and Demographic Trends in U.S. Adolescent Inhalant Use: Implications for Clinicians and Prevention Scientists

ABSTRACT

Background: Inhalant use by adolescents is cause for concern due to the early age of inhalant use initiation and the many short- and long-term health consequences that can occur concurrently with and subsequent to use. However, inhalant use research has been limited relative to the literature available on other drug use. Objectives: The present research examined long-term trends in inhalant use prevalence, demographic risk factors of inhalant use, and median grade level of first use. Methods: Monitoring the Future data from 1991 to 2011, which includes information drawn from United States eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, were examined. The total sample comprised more than one million participants. Results were examined descriptively with figures and quantitatively with mixed-effects regression models of the effect of time on use rates. Results: Inhalant use prevalence rates generally declined over the selected period. Though rates of use by males and females decreased significantly, the proportion of females among lifetime users increased significantly. Whites, Hispanics, and members of uncategorized “other” ethnicities showed the highest prevalence rates. Although the proportion of Whites among lifetime users decreased significantly, the proportion of Hispanics and “other” ethnicities increased significantly. The median first use was between sixth and ninth grade. Conclusions/Importance: Results suggest a need to tailor inhalant use treatment and prevention programs to the needs of specific demographic groups and to target interventions early to prevent youth inhalant use. Strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Inhalants
• adolescents
• monitoring the future
• health disparities
• epidemiology
• mixed-effects regression

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Glossary

• Inhalant: Any substance that remains volatile at room temperature, is not already defined as a drug under another category, and is used by “sniffing, snorting, huffing, bagging, or spraying” the substance (Brouette & Anton, 2001, p. 79).

• Mixed-effects regression modeling: A type of multilevel modeling that combines both fixed (i.e., having a predetermined value) and random (i.e., selected at random from a probability distribution) effects (Cohen et al., 2003).

• Monitoring the future: A study conducted annually since 1975 by investigators at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research; it provides information about changing substance use trends in the United States, factors that drive these problems, consequences of these trends, and some practical ideas for policymakers who would like to intervene (Johnston et al., 2014).

Notes

1 Missing data proportions for select years include both “never used” and “missing data” due to errors for certain years. In a personal communication with Monitoring the Future (G. Maggio, June 17, 2013), it was stated that these errors would likely not be fixed in the near future. Missing data ranges for each grade are as follows: eighth: 13.56% (2011)–89.73% (2001); tenth: 9.56% (2010)–89.39% (2001); twelfth: 19.09% (2006)–93.41% (2001).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Elizabeth Halliburton

Amanda Elizabeth Halliburton, M.S., is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Clinical Science program in the Virginia Tech Department of Psychology. Her research interests include mechanisms and development of developmentally sensitive prevention and treatment programs for adolescent risk behaviors and psychopathology, with current research foci that include substance use, conduct problems, and peer victimization. In particular, her dissertation research focuses on the use of acceptance- and mindfulness-based techniques in the prevention of maladaptive responses to adolescent peer rejection and exclusion.

Bethany Cara Bray

Bethany Cara Bray, Ph.D., is the Outreach Director of The Methodology Center and a Research Assistant Professor in the College of Health and Human Development at The Pennsylvania State University. She received a Masters in Applied Statistics in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies in 2007 from Penn State. Dr. Bray's research focuses on the development and application of advanced latent class modeling techniques to questions about the development of substance use, gambling and risky sexual behavior. For more information, visit her website at bethanycbray.wordpress.com.