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Objectives: This study assessed the longitudinal associations between medical and nonmedical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics (NMPSA) during adolescence (age 18) and substance use disorder (SUD) symptoms during adulthood (age 35)., Methods: Multiple cohorts of nationally representative samples of U.S. high school seniors (n=8373) were surveyed via self-administered questionnaires and followed longitudinally from adolescence (age 18, 1976-1996) to adulthood (age 35, 1993-2013)., Results: An estimated 20.1% of adolescents reported lifetime medical or nonmedical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics. Among adolescents who reported medical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics, 44.9% also reported NMPSA by age 18. Based on multivariate analyses that included age 18 sociodemographic and other substance use controls, medical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics without any history of NMPSA during adolescence was not associated with SUD symptoms in adulthood relative to adolescents with no prescription sedative/anxiolytic use. In contrast, adolescents with a history of both medical and nonmedical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics and adolescents who reported only NMPSA had between two to three times greater odds of SUD symptoms in adulthood relative to adolescents with no prescription sedative/anxiolytic use and those who reported only medical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics., Conclusions: One in every five U.S. high school seniors reported ever using prescription sedatives/anxiolytics either medically or nonmedically. This study provides compelling evidence that the medical use of prescription sedatives/anxiolytics (without any NMPSA) during adolescence is not associated with increased risk of SUD symptoms in adulthood while any NMPSA during adolescence serves as a signal for SUDs in adulthood., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The association between drinking motives and protective behavioral strategies was explored, including whether individuals with different drinking motives were more or less likely to utilize protective behavioral strategies and whether the combination of drinking motives and use of protective strategies may help identify individuals at elevated risk for alcohol-related problems. The final sample included 358 college students (59.2% female; M=18.47 years old, SD=.58). Individuals who had greater enhancement and social motives for drinking used protective strategies less frequently, controlling for number of drinks per week; those who had greater conformity motives used protective strategies more frequently. Coping motives were not significantly correlated with the mean of protective factors, but were associated with less frequently using individual strategies. Using protective strategies more frequently was associated with consuming fewer drinks and having lower RAPI scores. Interactions of drinking motives with the number of protective strategies tended to be non-significant; however, significant interactions indicated that greater coping and conformity motives were especially associated with negative outcomes among individuals who used fewer protective strategies., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Diabetes is rapidly escalating amongst low-income, older adults at great cost to the Medicare program. We use longitudinal survey data from the Health and Retirement Study linked to administrative Medicare records and biomarker data to assess the relationship between Food Stamp receipt and diabetes health outcomes. We find no significant difference in Medicare spending, outpatient utilization, diabetes hospitalizations and blood sugar (HbA1c) levels between recipients and income-eligible non-recipients after controlling for a detailed set of covariates including individual fixed effects and measures of diabetes treatment compliance. As one-third of elderly Food Stamp recipients are currently diabetic, greater coordination between the Food Stamp, Medicare, and Medicaid programs may improve health outcomes for this group., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A growing body of literature has documented a link between neighborhood context and health outcomes. However, little is known about the relationship between neighborhood context and body mass index (BMI) or whether the association between neighborhood context and BMI differs by ethnicity. This paper investigates several neighborhood characteristics as potential explanatory factors for the variation of BMI across the United States; further, this paper explores to what extent segregation and the concentration of disadvantage across neighborhoods help explain ethnic disparities in BMI. Using data geo-coded at the census tract-level and linked with individual-level data from the Third National Health and Examination Survey in the United States (U.S.), we find significant variation in BMI across U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, neighborhood characteristics have a significant association with body mass and partially explain ethnic disparities in BMI, net of individual-level adjustments. These data also reveal evidence that ethnic enclaves are not in fact advantageous for the body mass index of Hispanics-a relationship counter to what has been documented for other health outcomes.