Presenter(s): Joseph Moore—Sociology
Faculty Mentor(s): Clare Evans
Session 5.5: McNair Scholars Presentations
The current opioid epidemic has produced long-lasting consequences for a large population of people in the United States . One of these consequences is addiction, leading to the transition from the often expensive prescription opioids that are prescribed by doctors to the use of less expensive and easily accessible heroin . This research answers the question of how does heroin use differ by race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status and what is the predicted probability of future use among these strata? To accomplish this task I will perform statistical analysis using the most recent survey data sets ranging from 2015-2018 as they were made available by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) . These public use data sets contain 226,632 non-institutionalized US participants aged 12 or older combined . I will use these public data sets to run regression models and calculate probability . My findings thus far demonstrate a higher usage pattern among males living in poverty of all race/ethnicities, with white males using at the highest rate . Furthermore, the least amount of usage rests with African-American females living at more than 2 times the federal poverty threshold level . The results of this study will demonstrate the extent at which heroin is used among different social strata contributing to the existing knowledge .