2002, Number 2
Salud Mental 2002; 25 (2)
Porcentaje de continuidad del consumo de la mariguana en México: Una aproximación desde las encuestas nacionales de adicciones
Linares PN, Cravioto QP, García TG, Medina-Mora ME
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Language: Spanish
References: 13
Page: 1-8
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ABSTRACT
The National Addiction Surveys conducted between 1988 and 1998 demonstrate that marihuana is among the most consumed illicit drugs in Mexico, not only among the general population but also among both sexes and all age groups. The prevalence of the consumption of this drug has increased significantly from 2.9% in 1988 to 4.7% in 1998, which reveals that the number of people reporting having used marihuana at least once in their life increased to slightly over 2 million in 1998. To evaluate drug consumption, multiple epidemiologic indicators were used taking into account several characteristics of this phenomenon, such as the magnitude of its use, its behavioral tendencies, and the geographic extension of its use. One of these indicators is the "rate" of its continued use, which describes the percentage of those that, after having initiated drug use, continued using it, and also of those who increased its use. This unique opportunity to use data gathered in three of the national surveys (ENA ’88, ’93, and ’98) provides the possibility of analyzing the behavior of marihuana consumption in Mexico, evaluating the main factors that contribute to the initation and continuation of this practice, and comparing the number of users of this drug in terms of the general population size. Through the data gathered in these surveys, drug use may be defined according to frequency: ever used in one’s life (AVV), used during the most recent 12 months (UA), and used during the most recent month (UM). From this descriptive analysis constructing indicators, such as percentage of continued use and estimation of users that potentially would continue consuming once having initiated its use, is possible. The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare the percentage of continued marihuana consumption based on the prevalence obtained in the three ENA, as well as the behavior among experimental, moderate, and frequent users from 1988 through 1998. Based on the study design of repeated cross-sectional surveys, "rates" of continued use of marihuana in Mexico were evaluated and compared; these indicators were estimated according to the type of the drug user. The conceptualized definitions and the methodologic criteria utilized were the same for each of the three national surveys. Prevalence of consumption was defined as having used the drug in any form or by any route of administration and by frequency of use (AVV, UA or UM), and was calculated for each year of the survey. The type of user was established taking into account the number of times that he or she used marihuana during each period. Prior to tabulation and analysis, data were synthesized and organized for each survey year according to marihuana use, i.e., the section of the general database referring to marihuana consumption was used to create a sub-data set for each survey year. The analysis consisted of the estimated point prevalence, with 95% confidence intervals, and the percentage of continued use for each survey year and for each type of user. For comparing the rate of continued use for each type of user, X2 for proportions was used. Data were processed and analyzed using the statistical software package SPSS v. 8.0 for Windows. The results demonstrate that even though prevalences of consumption reported in the three ENA are low and indeed distinct, the percentage of continued use reached just below 20% in these three studies. For ENA ’88 the prevalence estimate was 13.4% (95%CI: 10.0; 17.5); for ENA ’93, 6.7% (95%CI: 4.90; 8.90), and for ENA ’98 18.5% (95%CI: 14.8; 22.7). However, since the percentage of continued use, stratified by type of use, was estimated, we were able to observe a general tendency to increase its use, with the average estimates of low continued use among experimental users (11.23%), medium among moderate users (36.20%), and high among frequent users (60.93%). This seems to indicate that although the prevalence of the consumption of marihuana is not of great magnitude, it continues growing at a slow increasing rate, which implies that the proportion of experimental drug users has decreased at the expense of the increase of moderate and frequent marihuana drug users.REFERENCES