Patterns of Polydrug Use Classes Among a Subset of Latino Male Seasonal Workers in South Florida: A Latent Class Analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

Little is known about polydrug use among Latino seasonal farmworkers. This cross-sectional study with male Latino seasonal workers (LSWs) living in South Florida categorized distinct classes of drug use and then characterized each drug use typology by demographic, structural, and psychological factors.

Methods

One hundred and twenty-five male LSWs were recruited during community events using convenience sampling between July 2019-March 2020. Latent class analysis was conducted by leveraging measures of self-reported use of nine drugs in the past year (sedatives, cannabis, stimulants, heroin, opioids, cocaine, PCP, hallucinogens, and inhalants). Correlates of latent class membership were examined using 3-step categorical latent variable logistic regression. Analyses were performed using Mplus version 8 and SAS 9.4.

Results

Four drug use classes were identified, male LSWs who exhibited: 1) use of illegal opioids only (n = 32); 2) concurrent cannabis and cocaine use (n = 75); 3) concurrent sedative and cannabis use (n = 13); and 4) high concurrent drug use (n = 5). About 84.7% of the sample reported use of at least one drug in the past 12 months. LSWs who identified as White and were married or in a stable relationship were likely to only use illegal opioids. LSWs with less than high school education and self-reported good to excellent health were more likely to use cannabis and cocaine. Men with moderate to severe anxiety and self-reported bad health were classified as engaging in sedative and cannabis co-use. Survivors of physical abuse were more commonly classified as people using high concurrent substances relative to non-abused men among the four classes.

Conclusions

This pilot study suggests the presence of heterogeneity in polydrug use classes among LSWs in South Florida.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• substance use
• latent class analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2023.2278803

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Awards # K99DA041494 PI: Kanamori; R00DA041494 PI: Kanamori), the National Institute of Mental Health (Awards # R01MH125727 PI: Kanamori; P30MH116867 PI: Safren; Subaward PI: Kanamori), and the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities (Awards # R01MD018343 PI: Kanamori; U54MD002266 PI: Behar-Zusman; P20MD002288 PI: De La Rosa). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities, or the National Institutes of Health.