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Childhood socio-economic status, school failure and drug abuse: a Swedish national cohort study

Gauffin, Karl ; Vinnerljung, Bo ; Fridell, Mats LU ; Hesse, Morten and Hjern, Anders (2013) In Addiction 108(8). p.1441-1449
Abstract
Aim To investigate whether socio-economic status (SES) in childhood and school failure at 15 years of age predict illicit drug abuse in youth and young adulthood. Design setting and participantsRegister study in a Swedish national cohort born 1973-88 (n=1405763), followed from age 16 to 20-35 years. Cox regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for any indication of drug abuse. Measurements Our outcomes were hospital admissions, death and criminality associated with illicit drug abuse. Data on socio-demographics, school grades and parental psychosocial problems were collected from censuses (1985 and 1990) and national registers. School failure was defined as having mean school grades from the final year in primary... (More)
Aim To investigate whether socio-economic status (SES) in childhood and school failure at 15 years of age predict illicit drug abuse in youth and young adulthood. Design setting and participantsRegister study in a Swedish national cohort born 1973-88 (n=1405763), followed from age 16 to 20-35 years. Cox regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for any indication of drug abuse. Measurements Our outcomes were hospital admissions, death and criminality associated with illicit drug abuse. Data on socio-demographics, school grades and parental psychosocial problems were collected from censuses (1985 and 1990) and national registers. School failure was defined as having mean school grades from the final year in primary school lower than -1standard deviation and/or no grades in core subjects. Findings School failure was a strong predictor of illicit drug abuse with an HR of 5.87 (95% CI: 5.76-5.99) after adjustment for age and sex. Childhood SES was associated with illicit drug abuse later in life in a stepwise manner. The lowest stratum had a HR of 2.28 (95% CI: 2.20-2.37) compared with the highest stratum as the reference, when adjusted for other socio-demographic variables. In the fully adjusted model, the effect of SES was greatly attenuated to an HR of 1.23 (95% CI: 1.19-1.28) in the lowest SES category, while the effect of school failure remained high with an HR of 4.22 (95% CI: 4.13-4.31). Conclusions School failure and childhood socio-economic status predict illicit drug abuse independently in youth and young adults in Sweden. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Childhood, cohort study, drug abuse, school failure, social inequity, socio-economic status, Sweden
in
Addiction
volume
108
issue
8
pages
1441 - 1449
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000321616800014
  • scopus:84880315200
  • pmid:23489245
ISSN
1360-0443
DOI
10.1111/add.12169
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7664128c-876b-4bf3-8bfe-b519e692680c (old id 3973218)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:57:57
date last changed
2022-04-19 21:15:20
@article{7664128c-876b-4bf3-8bfe-b519e692680c,
  abstract     = {{Aim To investigate whether socio-economic status (SES) in childhood and school failure at 15 years of age predict illicit drug abuse in youth and young adulthood. Design setting and participantsRegister study in a Swedish national cohort born 1973-88 (n=1405763), followed from age 16 to 20-35 years. Cox regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for any indication of drug abuse. Measurements Our outcomes were hospital admissions, death and criminality associated with illicit drug abuse. Data on socio-demographics, school grades and parental psychosocial problems were collected from censuses (1985 and 1990) and national registers. School failure was defined as having mean school grades from the final year in primary school lower than -1standard deviation and/or no grades in core subjects. Findings School failure was a strong predictor of illicit drug abuse with an HR of 5.87 (95% CI: 5.76-5.99) after adjustment for age and sex. Childhood SES was associated with illicit drug abuse later in life in a stepwise manner. The lowest stratum had a HR of 2.28 (95% CI: 2.20-2.37) compared with the highest stratum as the reference, when adjusted for other socio-demographic variables. In the fully adjusted model, the effect of SES was greatly attenuated to an HR of 1.23 (95% CI: 1.19-1.28) in the lowest SES category, while the effect of school failure remained high with an HR of 4.22 (95% CI: 4.13-4.31). Conclusions School failure and childhood socio-economic status predict illicit drug abuse independently in youth and young adults in Sweden.}},
  author       = {{Gauffin, Karl and Vinnerljung, Bo and Fridell, Mats and Hesse, Morten and Hjern, Anders}},
  issn         = {{1360-0443}},
  keywords     = {{Childhood; cohort study; drug abuse; school failure; social inequity; socio-economic status; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{1441--1449}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Addiction}},
  title        = {{Childhood socio-economic status, school failure and drug abuse: a Swedish national cohort study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/add.12169}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/add.12169}},
  volume       = {{108}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}