Arab Americans in Publicly Financed Alcohol/Other Drug Abuse Treatment

ABSTRACT

Little is known about Arab Americans, a rapidly growing ethnic group, and their involvement in alcohol/other drug abuse treatment. Using fiscal year 2005 Michigan data for all publicly funded alcohol/other drug abuse treatment, Arab American admissions were compared to admissions for American Indian, Hispanic, African American, and Non-Hispanic/Non-Arabic White. Arab Americans appear to account for a disproportionately small percentage of admissions to publicly funded alcohol/other drug abuse treatment. Admission profiles were generally similar across ethnicities, with the exception that Arab Americans were entering treatment after shorter duration of use. These data can inform development of treatment programs and outreach efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Arab American
• alcohol/other drug abuse treatment
• publicly financed

Notes

This work was funded in part by a grant from the State of Michigan (Joe Young, Sr.) and a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors wish to acknowledge and thank Phil Chvojka, from the Michigan Department of Community Health, and Alison L. Koch for their contributions.

An abstract from a presentation of this material was published previously (2007) in Ethnicity and Disease 17(2 Suppl 3): S3-72-S3-76.

∗Asian/Pacific Islander population in Michigan in 2000 was 0.3%. In Fiscal year 2005, admission data for publicly funded alcohol/other drug abuse treatment, 0.3% of admissions (N = 180) were coded as Asian/Pacific Islander.

∗May not total 100% due to rounding.

∗Significantly different across ethnicities. Using Tukey's HSD, African-American admissions had higher mean age than admissions for other ethnicities.

∗∗Significantly different across ethnicities. Using Tukey's HSD, mean duration of use was lower for Arab American admissions, followed by Hispanic and Non-Hispanic/Non-Arabic White admissions, followed by American Indian admissions, and then African-American admissions.