A Cross-Comparative Survey of Information Seeking and Scanning About Drug-Related Sources and Topics Among U.S. and Israeli College Students

Abstract

There is an increasing amount of drug-related information that is easily accessible from media and interpersonal sources. Recent research shows significant positive associations between information acquisition and nonmedical drug use intentions among college students. This study examines information about amphetamines and marijuana that was actively searched (“seeking”) as well as information that was encountered during routine media use (“scanning”). Data are drawn from a cross-national comparative survey of college students in the United States (N = 734) and in Israel (N = 800). U.S. participants reported seeking and scanning information about marijuana across a broader range of sources than Israeli participants. Among U.S. and Israeli participants, the most frequently searched marijuana-related topics included the benefits of marijuana, negative effects of marijuana use, and political reasons why marijuana should be legal. Participants from both countries reported the benefits of amphetamines, and the negative effects of amphetamine use as the most frequently searched topics about amphetamines. Participants in both countries identified the internet and friends as the most popular sources of drug-related information and noted that physicians, friends, and the internet were the most trusted sources. Implications for research on information seeking and health communication are discussed.

Acknowledgment

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the article.

Funding

This research was supported by a European Union Marie Curie Career Reintegration grant (SSBD, FP7 333605), and by the Department of Communication at the College of Communication at Michigan State University.

Supplemental Material

A supplemental online appendix (Tables A1–A7) is available on the publisher’s website at https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2017.1341567.

Notes

¹ As there were no missing data in seeking and scanning drug-related information in the Israeli sample, Little’s tests were only performed to analyze the missing data patterns for the U.S. participants. The Little’s test results for seeking marijuana-related information were χ² (209) = 198.60, p = .696, and χ² (175) = 193.71, p = .158 for seeking amphetamine-related information. The Little’s test results for scanning marijuana-related information were χ² (74) = 70.08, p = .61, and χ² (51) = 38.37, p = .904 for scanning amphetamine-related information.

² Within each sample, binary regression tests showed that marijuana users were more likely to seek marijuana-related information both in the United States (B = 1.79, OR = 6.02, p < .001) and in Israel (B = 1.70, OR = 5.50, p < .001). However, we did not observe an association between marijuana use and scanning among the U.S. and the Israeli sample, ps > .006. In terms of amphetamine, (nonmedical) amphetamine users were more likely to seek amphetamine-related information within the United States (B = 1.10, OR = 3.01, p < .001) and the Israeli sample (B = 1.07, OR = 2.91, p < .001). However, no evidence shows an association between nonmedical amphetamine use and scanning for the U.S and the Israeli samples.

³ To control for the family-wise error, a Bonferroni correction was performed to set the adjusted p value at a .006 significance level for each research question.

⁴ As the study focuses on comparing the drug-related information engagement patterns across countries, detailed statistics from comparisons between nonmedical drug users and non-users are not included here; however, this information is available in the supplemental online appendix.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a European Union Marie Curie Career Reintegration grant (SSBD, FP7 333605), and by the Department of Communication at the College of Communication at Michigan State University.