ABSTRACT
Objectives
There is a growing concern about the increasing incidence of weapon-related injuries among middle and high school students in the United States, but the association with substance use remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between substance use and weapon-related injuries among middle and high school students in the United States.
Design
Population-based cross-sectional study
Setting
Public and private middle and high schools in all 50 states of the United States and District of Columbia
Methods
Data were obtained from the 2015 Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (YRBS) (n=15,624). Weapon-related injuries were injuries caused by any weapon. Substance use was defined as when someone uses psychoactive substances including alcohol and illicit drugs. Substances in this study included marijuana, heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy, alcohol and injected illegal drugs. Substance abuse referred to the harmful use of any of these substances. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between substance use and weapon-related injuries after adjustment for covariates.
Results
There were 574 (7.70%) cases of weapon-related injuries among the males and 361 (4.85%) cases of weapon-related injuries among the female population. The highest proportion of weapon-related injuries was among the American Indians (10.42%) while the lowest proportion was among the whites (5.74%). Of all the substance use groups, alcohol users had the highest number of cases of weapon-related injuries (N= 689, 7.37%) but the highest proportion of weapon-related injuries was among heroin users (N= 147, 45.51%).
The use of marijuana (Odd Ratio (OR) = 1.45, 95% confidence interval (CI) =1.16 -1.80) and illegal drug injection (OR =3.71, 95% CI = 2.28 -6.03) were associated with increased odds of weapon-related injuries. Carrying weapon on school property (OR =2.21, 95% CI =1.69 – 2.89) and alcohol use (OR = 1.53, 95% CI =1.3 – 1.8) were also found to be positively associated with weapon-related injuries. However, being female (OR = 0.8, 95% CI = 0.7 – 0.98) was associated with lower odds of weapon-related injuries.
Conclusion
Marijuana use, illegal drug injection, alcohol use and carrying weapon on school property were positively associated with weapon-related injuries among middle and high school students in the United States. The findings may help reduce weapon-related injuries in middle and high schools if policy makers enact laws that limit access to weapons especially those involved in substance use and prohibit bringing of weapons into the school properties.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1352 |
| Date | 12 April 2019 |
| Creators | Nwabueze, Christian |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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