Substance use in the Norwegian general population: Prevalence and associations with disease
Bonsaksen, Tore; Skogstad, Laila; Grimholt, Tine Kristin; Heir, Trond; Ekeberg, Øivind; Lerdal, Anners; Bredal, Inger Schou
Peer reviewed, Journal article
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Date
2020Metadata
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Abstract
Objective
This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of substance use in the Norwegian general population and examine whether the risk of various psychiatric or somatic diseases varied according to alcohol- and substance use.
Methods
A survey was distributed to 5500 persons in Norway, and a sample of 1792 persons responded (36% response rate). Data concerned with the use of substances were cross-tabulated with disease occurrence, and relative ratios (RR) of diseases in groups of lifetime substance users versus abstainers/low frequent users were calculated.
Results
Lifetime prevalence estimates were 83.5% for alcohol, 7.9% for cannabis, 8.5% for sedatives, 33.8% for strong analgesics and 2.4% for opioids and for stimulants. Drinking alcohol weekly or daily was associated with lower risk of several diseases, whereas lifetime use of sedatives, strong analgesics and opioids was associated with higher risk. Lifetime use of cannabis was associated with higher risk of depression and lower risk of diabetes and arthrosis.
Conclusions
While frequent alcohol use was associated with reduced risk of several diseases, lifetime use of other substances was generally associated with higher risk of disease. The study provides evidence of increased risk of disease among users of illicit substances and prescription drugs.
Description
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.