IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v60y2005i3p617-626.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trend and area variation in amphetamine prescription usage among children and adolescents in Michigan

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Swu-Jane
  • Crawford, Stephanie Y.
  • Lurvey, Patricia L.

Abstract

The increased use of stimulant medications for children and teenagers is an ongoing issue of professional and public concern. Unlike methylphenidate, the growth of prescriptions and patterns of utilization of amphetamines for pediatric populations have not been well documented. The study objectives were to describe the trends of amphetamine prescription utilization among pediatric age groups in Michigan and to compare area variations. A population-based computerized data set from the state of Michigan was used to extract all outpatient prescriptions for Schedule II amphetamines dispensed from 1990 to 1997. The prescribing rates by age groups and by counties were computed with the projected population size of corresponding years, and mapped and analyzed with spatial statistical methods. Counties that did not conform to the global spatial dependence pattern in the prescription rate were identified using Moran scatter plot. A total of 236,661 outpatient prescriptions for amphetamines were dispensed in Michigan during the time frame, including less than 1% for methamphetamine, 24.5% for amphetamine, and 74.8% for dextroamphetamine. The prescribing rate was highest among children 10-14 years old (380 prescriptions per 10,000 people) in 1997, followed by children 5-9 years old (253 prescriptions per 10,000). Over the 8-year period, the prescribing rates of amphetamines increased significantly, ranging from 380% for children 2-4 years to 817% for teenagers older than 14 years. The rates among counties ranged from 60 to 1648 per 10,000 children 5-14 years old, with the highest prescribing rates in the northwestern regions of Michigan. Although spatial dependence explained 36% of the variance, the area variations that are unaccounted for are still considerable. In conclusion, there were substantial increases and unexplained area variations in amphetamine usage in Michigan during the study period. Both phenomena require awareness and evaluation from researchers, policy makers, clinicians, and the public.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Swu-Jane & Crawford, Stephanie Y. & Lurvey, Patricia L., 2005. "Trend and area variation in amphetamine prescription usage among children and adolescents in Michigan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 617-626, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:3:p:617-626
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(04)00269-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krieger, Nancy, 1994. "Epidemiology and the web of causation: Has anyone seen the spider?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 887-903, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Nettle, 2010. "Why Are There Social Gradients in Preventative Health Behavior? A Perspective from Behavioral Ecology," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1-6, October.
    2. Alvarez, Camila H. & Evans, Clare Rosenfeld, 2021. "Intersectional environmental justice and population health inequalities: A novel approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    3. Arusha, Anowara Rayhan & Biswas, Raaj Kishore, 2020. "Prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression due to examination in Bangladeshi youths: A pilot study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    4. Jordi Vallverdú, 2018. "Post Truth, Newspeak and Epidemiological Causality," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 2(1), pages 2267-2268, January.
    5. Myers, Douglas J. & Kriebel, David & Karasek, Robert & Punnett, Laura & Wegman, David H., 2007. "The social distribution of risk at work: Acute injuries and physical assaults among healthcare workers working in a long-term care facility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 794-806, February.
    6. Drake, Stacy A. & Lemke, Michael K. & Yang, Yijiong, 2022. "Exploring the complexity of firearm homicides in Harris County, Texas, from 2009 to 2021: Implications for theory and prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    7. Evans, Clare R. & Erickson, Natasha, 2019. "Intersectionality and depression in adolescence and early adulthood: A MAIHDA analysis of the national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health, 1995–2008," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Kelly Huegaerts & Bram Spruyt & Christophe Vanroelen, 2018. "Youth Unemployment and Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Embodiment," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, June.
    9. Nancy Krieger & Pamela D Waterman & Anna Kosheleva & Jarvis T Chen & Dana R Carney & Kevin W Smith & Gary G Bennett & David R Williams & Elmer Freeman & Beverley Russell & Gisele Thornhill & Kristin M, 2011. "Exposing Racial Discrimination: Implicit & Explicit Measures–The My Body, My Story Study of 1005 US-Born Black & White Community Health Center Members," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-24, November.
    10. Leila Barraj & Nga Tran & Pamela Mink, 2009. "A Comparison of Egg Consumption with Other Modifiable Coronary Heart Disease Lifestyle Risk Factors: A Relative Risk Apportionment Study," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 401-415, March.
    11. Pykett, Jessica & Campbell, Niyah & Fenton, Sarah-Jane & Gagen, Elizabeth & Lavis, Anna & Newbigging, Karen & Parkin, Verity & Williams, Jessy, 2023. "Urban precarity and youth mental health: An interpretive scoping review of emerging approaches," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    12. Evans, Clare R., 2019. "Adding interactions to models of intersectional health inequalities: Comparing multilevel and conventional methods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 95-105.
    13. Michael Wolfson & Geoff Rowe, 2014. "HealthPaths: Using functional health trajectories to quantify the relative importance of selected health determinants," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 31(31), pages 941-974.
    14. Ryan Petteway & Mahasin Mujahid & Amani Allen & Rachel Morello-Frosch, 2019. "Towards a People’s Social Epidemiology: Envisioning a More Inclusive and Equitable Future for Social Epi Research and Practice in the 21st Century," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-21, October.
    15. Gatrell, Anthony C., 2005. "Complexity theory and geographies of health: a critical assessment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2661-2671, June.
    16. Petteway, Ryan J. & Mujahid, Mahasin & Allen, Amani & Morello-Frosch, Rachel, 2019. "The body language of place: A new method for mapping intergenerational “geographies of embodiment” in place-health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 51-63.
    17. Alhassan, Jacob Albin Korem & Abonyi, Sylvia & Neudorf, Cordell & Hanson, Lori, 2021. "“It feels like somebody cut my legs off”: Austerity, transportation and the ‘web of dispossession’ in Saskatchewan, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    18. Danielle Gallegos & Mariana M. Chilton, 2019. "Re-Evaluating Expertise: Principles for Food and Nutrition Security Research, Advocacy and Solutions in High-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-16, February.
    19. Niamh K Shortt & Esther Rind & Jamie Pearce & Richard Mitchell, 2014. "Integrating Environmental Justice and Socioecological Models of Health to Understand Population-Level Physical Activity," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(6), pages 1479-1495, June.
    20. Schwandt, Hilary M. & Underwood, Carol, 2016. "Engaging school personnel in making schools safe for girls in Botswana, Malawi, and Mozambique," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 53-58.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:60:y:2005:i:3:p:617-626. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.