Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Health

Advisor

Hadi Danawi

Abstract

AbstractAdolescent prescription opioid misuse (POM) in the United States is a significant public health issue, and there is a lack of studies investigating the association between opioid types and adolescent POM. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to explore possible associations between a set of independent variables: opioid types, gender, religiosity, and education, and the outcome variable, POM among adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the United States. The socio-ecological model was the theoretical framework that guided the study. A sample size of 13,722 from the 2017 Substance Abuse & Mental Health Data Archive was analyzed using descriptive statistics, simple and multiple logistic regression, and stratification analysis. Simple logistic regression analysis showed that religiosity was statistically significant (OR= 1.978, 95%CI: 1.633- 2.395, p= .000), while the multiple regression analysis revealed that gender was statistically significant (OR = 1.817, 95%CI: 1.129- 2.923, p = .014). Therefore, confirming the confounding effect of religiosity in the association between gender and adolescent POM. In the end, there was an association between gender and adolescent POM only. The use of stratification analysis highlighted that the responses within the subgroups were underrepresented based on the United States adolescent population size. The results provided useful information for policymakers and parents that can lead to positive social change, such as; information on the opioid types most misused by adolescents, possibly leading to the development of targeted policies to lower adolescent misuse, adverse effects, and deaths.

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