Common aspects of the lifestyles of high school students in Japan and their associations with drug abuse: Findings from an aggregate sample of the Japanese School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs in 2004, 2006, and 2009.

Abstract

This study sought (1) to determine the significant associations between measures of drug abuse and lifestyle variables in high school students in Japan, and (2) to ascertain common lifestyle variables in relation to associations between lifestyle and eight measures of drug abuse. Four measures were use of an inhalant, marijuana, an amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS), or MDMA (ecstasy) over the past year, and four measures were use of those drugs over one's lifetime. Data were from a combined sample (aggregate sample) from the Japanese School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (JSPAD). The aggregate sample consisted of 75, 726 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-year students (37,697 males and 38,029 females) at high schools nationwide who were selected by stratified, single-stage cluster sampling during surveys in 2004, 2006, and 2009. Eight measures of drug abuse were predicted with logistic regression analysis based on lifestyle variables. Six lifestyle variables jointly predicted those measures: "get- ting up at the same time every day," "eating breakfast," "enjoying school,'' "hours worked at a part-time job," "having close friends to hang out with", and "talking with one's parents about one's problems". The six lifestyle variables were associated with the measures of drug abuse in similar ways, regardless of which drug was abused. Those associations indicated that students whose parents were not at home had a markedly higher level of drug abuse. Students who lacked close friends to hang out with, students who did.not enjoy school, students who rarely ate breakfast, and students who did not get up at the same time every day had a higher level of drug abuse. Several indicators of associations yielded findings, and these findings could presumably help to determine if "individuals who abuse drugs display characteristics as a group" and if "individuals who abuse drugs tend to abuse multiple drugs".