Epidemiology of Inhalant Abuse - Archives - National Institute on ...

RISK FACTORS
When students who report inhalation <strong>of</strong> psychotropic substances are
compared to users <strong>of</strong> other drugs, 2 it becomes evident that males
outnumber females in a higher proportion than that observed for users <strong>of</strong>
other drugs; the students are significantly younger and have a lower SES,
as inferred by the education level <strong>of</strong> the head <strong>of</strong> the family (table 7).
A logistic regression analysis showed that males were almost two times
(1.94) more at risk <strong>of</strong> being inhalers as females. Students who worked at
least 4 hours a day were 1.36 times more at risk, and those who did not
study the year previous to the survey or were not full-time students were
30 percent mor at risk (1.30 times) <strong>of</strong> being inhalers, in relation to
nonworking or full-time students (table 8).
Among minors working in the streets in Mexico City, school dropout,
lack <strong>of</strong> contact with the family, early initiation in street work, drug use
among brothers and peers, and migration from rural areas were strong
predictors <strong>of</strong> drug use. Through a multiple categorical analysis, these
variables strongly differentiated drug users from nondrug users by
whether subjects were working in the streets, R 2 = .42 (Medina-Mora et
al. 1982). Other studies conducted in the northern region <strong>of</strong> the country
have not found a relation between migration and drug use, though
differences become evident when causes <strong>of</strong> migration are analyzed.
Migration associated with problems in the place <strong>of</strong> origin, such as
delinquency or antisocial behavior among parents, were positively
associated with drug use by sons (De La Garza 1987).
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
Vulnerable populations may be defined as workers who use solvents on
the job and children raised in family industries (usually located in their
homes) and who use these substances (Berriel-Gonzales et al. 1977);
street children (Departamento del Distrito Federal 1992; Gutierrez et al.
1993; Lea1 1977; Medina-Mora et al. 1982); and juvenile delinquents (De
La Garza 1987).
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