The
NHSDA Report:
Substance Use Among Older Adults
Highlights:
- In
2000, an estimated 568,000 persons aged 55 or older had used illicit
drugs in the past month and over 5 million were "binge"
alcohol users, including more than 1 million who were heavy alcohol
users.
- Among
older adults, whites had higher rates of past month illicit drug
use compared with Hispanics and higher rates of past month
alcohol use compared with either blacks or Hispanics.
- The
number of illicit drug users among older adults is likely to increase
in the coming years due to the aging of the "baby boom"
generation.
Reports
on older adults
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This Short
Report, The
NHSDA Report: Substance Use Among Older Adults,
is based on SAMHSA's
National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA),
now called
the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The survey is
conducted by the Office of Applied
Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA). SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and
consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse and for selected mental health measures in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.
SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use & Health also provides estimates
for drug use and for selected mental health measures by State.
