Disparities in Despair? Racial/Ethnic Patterns in Substance Use and Mental Health among Working-Aged Americans

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 17. Drug Use and Abuse

Abstract

Declining life expectancy and rises in drug overdose, suicide, and alcohol-related deaths suggests that American well-being is on the decline. Attention has focused on substance use and mental health among White Americans, but there is much we do not yet know about how these health factors are patterned across race/ethnicity. We seek to provide a description of how substance use and mental health conditions differ across race/ethnic groups for U.S. men and women aged 24-64. We use the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a recent dataset that provides detail on substance use and mental health for a nationally representative sample. We employ logistic regression to examine multiple substance use and mental health outcomes. Preliminary results demonstrate a complex pattern across groups and outcomes. Non-Hispanic Whites fare worse than non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and Asian men and women for many, but not all, outcomes. However, multiracial individuals and those identifying as “other” have similar or worse odds for substance use and mental health conditions. We describe next steps to be completed prior to the ASA meetings in August 2019. This study provides evidence that the current focus on despair among White Americans may be distorting a complicated social phenomenon affecting the diverse U.S. population.

Authors

• Elizabeth Lawrence, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Korey Tillman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas