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1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Population Estimates

CONSIDERATIONS IN INTERPRETING THE DATA

The estimates produced in this report should be viewed as approximations based on the best available data. Readers are therefore cautioned to take the following points into account when using or interpreting the data in this report:

· The value of self-reports obviously depends on the honesty and memory of sampledrespondents. Research has supported the validity of self-report data in similar contexts.6^,7 Although NHSDA procedures are designed to encourage truthfulness and recall, as with all studies of this type, some underreporting or overreporting may occur.

· NHSDA drug use prevalence estimates for specific subgroups are sometimes based on modest to small sample sizes, which may lead to substantial sampling error.

· Population projections prepared for the U.S. Bureau of the Census' Current Population Survey (and used in weighting the 1998 NHSDA sample) are subject to error, which increases with the age of the last census.

· The population surveyed consists of noninstitutionalized civilians living in households, college dormitories, homeless shelters, rooming houses, and on military installations. Therefore, this report does not present estimates for some segments of the U.S. population that may contain a substantial proportion of drug users, such as transients not residing in shelters (e.g., users of soup kitchens or residents of street encampments) and those incarcerated in county jails or State and Federal prisons.

Rouse, B.A, Kozel, N.J., & Richards, L.G. (Eds.). (1985). Self-report methods of estimating drug

use (NIDA Research Monograph No. 57, DHHS Publication No. ADM 85-1402). Rockville, MD:

National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Turner, C.F., Lessler, J.T., & Gfroerer, J.C. (Eds.). (1992). Survey measurement of drug use:

Methodological studies (DHHS Publication No. ADM 92-1929). Rockville, MD: National Institute

on Drug Abuse.

This page was last updated on June 03, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.

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