National Analysis of Differences Among Substance Abuse Treatment Outcomes: College Student and Nonstudent Emerging Adults

Abstract

Objective: To discover differences between student and nonstudent substance abuse treatment demographics, treatment characteristics, and outcomes. Participants: Conducted February 2014, clients without prior treatment admissions, aged 18–24, not in methadone maintenance therapy, and in nonintensive and ambulatory intensive outpatient treatment settings (N = 467,233). Methods: Chi-square was used to analyze differences. Multivariate logistic regression including covariates and the student status predicted successful completion with risk differences (RD). Results: Students were more likely to successfully complete treatment than nonstudents (56.15% vs 41.96%; χ² = 1355.04, df = 1, p < .0001, RD = 14.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] [13.43, 14.95]), and students were 6.92 (95% CI [6.26, 7.58]) percentage points less likely than nonstudents to remain in treatment for longer than 4 months (χ² = 367.24, df = 1, p < .0001). Conclusions: Treatment providers seem to have greater results retaining students in shorter periods. Suggestions for higher education treatment engagement are discussed.

Keywords:

• college student
• substance abuse
• treatment outcomes

FUNDING

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received an exemption from the University of Iowa Human Subjects Office Institutional Review Board.

NOTE

For comments and further information, address correspondence to Ethan Sahker, Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation, 100 MTP4 Room 102, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-5000, USA (e-mail: [email protected]).