LATEBREAKER
Substance Use
Examining the illicit use of prescription painkillers among Canadian university students Sanewal Singh* Sanewal Singh Samantha Meyer
Background and Aims
Individuals between the ages of 18-25 years old are among the highest illicit prescription painkiller users, which coincides with university students. The aim of this research is to examine the predictors and characteristics of illicit prescription painkiller use among Canadian university students.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This study consists of a secondary analysis of data from the American College Health Association, National College Health Assessment Survey II Canadian university edition. In addition to descriptive statistics, a binary logistic regression was conducted.
Findings
Of the 54,895 valid survey responses, 3221 were prevalent users of prescription painkillers without a prescription from a healthcare professional in the last 12 months. Factors such as being West Asian (Exp(B) = 2.167, p<0.001, CI = 1.690-2.779) or Black (Exp(B) = 1.309, p<0.01, CI = 1.081-1.565), having lower cumulative grade point average of a C (Exp(B) = 1.311, p<.001, CI = 1.160-1.482) or lower, and more frequently using cigarettes and cocaine in the last 30 days, on average, increased the odds of illicit painkiller use. Students who smoked 10-19 days over the span of the last 30 days were (Exp(B) = 1.690, p<.001, CI = 1.261-2.266) on average more likely to illicitly use prescription painkillers. Conversely, factors such as being White (Exp(B) = .786, p<.001, CI = .692-.893) and a second-year undergraduate student (Exp(B) = .851, p<.001, CI = .761-.951) or higher decreased the odds of illicit prescription painkiller use, on average.
Conclusions
This study identifies various predictors, characteristics, and risk factors for Canadian university students that may use prescription painkillers without the prescription from a healthcare professional. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and university student health care systems support at-risk students.