Drug use on both sides of the US-Mexico border

• Main Authors: Guilherme Borges (Author), Sarah E Zemore (Author), Ricardo Orozco (Author), Cheryl J Cherpitel (Author), Priscilla Martínez (Author), Lynn Wallisch (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, 2018-06-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 0036-3634; 1606-7916; 10.21149/8603
• Keywords: Mexican Americans; border health; epidemiology; survey; drug use; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Salud Pública de México, Vol 60, Iss 4, jul-ago, Pp 451-461 (2018)

Objective. To compare drug use for cities along the US-Mexico border. Materials and methods. Data are from the US-Mexico Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions (UMSARC, 2011-2013), a survey of 4 796 randomly selected Mexican and of Mexican origin individuals on both sides of the border. Results. Higher rates of any past-year drug use and symptoms of drug use disorders were found only in the border city of Laredo, when compared to the non-border city of San Antonio. Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa/Matamoros showed higher rates of drug use than the non-border city of Monterrey. Much higher rates (OR's in the range of 4-11) were found in the US cities when compared to their across the- border Mexican counterparts. Conclusions. Drug use is high on the border for the selected Mexican cities. Misuse of prescription drugs is nevertheless a concern in the south Texas border cities in our study.