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

TABLE 2. Current use <strong>of</strong> inhalants by U.S. students (values in
percentages).
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
1lth
12th
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 Total N
2 4 3 3
3 3 3 4
5 4 4 4
3 5 3 4
5 5 5 5
4 4 4 4
3 3 3 3
2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2
4
4
4
15
5
5
4
3
2
3
3
4
3
6
5
4
2
2
22,907
38,595
25,542
74,604
153,491
84,545
95,180
69,035
133,056
Total N 45,174 113,690 124,994 142,753 198,936 71,408 696,955
SOURCE: The American Drug and Alcohol Survey.
might try a drug every year and, since anyone who has used it before
should continue to indicate that they have tried the drug, lifetime
prevalence always should increase with every year that passes; it should
never decrease. For most drugs, in fact, lifetime prevalence does either
increase across grades or remain relatively steady after the ninth grade
(Oetting and Beauvais 1990). An examination <strong>of</strong> table 1, however,
shows that lifetime prevalence for inhalant use invariably is lower in the
12th grade than it is in the 8th grade.
In any one year, these are different age cohorts so the above result could
occur if inhalant use were increasing among younger students and the
increase had not yet reached the 12th grade. Comparing the same age
cohorts across time (1987 8th graders with 1991 12th graders), however,
yields the same result. The 12th graders show lower lifetime prevalence.
This paradoxical result is not unique to this study; it appears in almost
every survey where lifetime prevalence <strong>of</strong> inhalant use is assessed for 8th
and 12th graders. The best explanation probably is that many 8th grade
inhalant users drop out <strong>of</strong> school before they reach the 12th grade. By
the time their age group reaches the 12th grade, many <strong>of</strong> the early
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