Agreement between two measures of drug use in a low-prevalence population

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Abstract

The present study examined the agreement between two measures of prevalence of drug use in the community: self-report and specific pharmacological analyses of urine samples. The data were collected in the context of a random community survey of health practices and attitudes. A random 20% of the households participating in the health study were targeted for biochemical assay. Compliance with urine delivery was relatively high at 79%. Urine samples were screened qualitatively for cannabinoids and benzodiazepines using the enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT) (Syva Diagnostics, Palo Alto, CA). Screening for pharmaceuticals used a standard thin-layer chromatography (TLC) technique. Agreement between the self-report and biochemical assay estimates of prevalence was statistically significant (p < .05). While self-report of substance use is not a perfect measure of consumption, it remains a relatively economical and reasonably accurate method of obtaining estimates of substance use in community samples.

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    This research was carried out at the Discipline of Behavioural Science in Relation to Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Newcastle, NSW, 2308, Australia.

    Funded through the National Campaign Against Drug Abuse. Cannabinoid analyses funded through the NSW Department of Health. Thanks to Peter Mearrick for his expert advice.

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