Did the under‐reporting of meth/amphetamine use increase in a general population survey in Australia as negative media coverage increased?

Aim To test (1) if there was a change in self‐reported lifetime prevalence of meth/amphetamine use by birth cohort and (2) if the extent of under‐reporting of meth/amphetamine use was associated with the proportion of the population who nominated meth/amphetamine as a drug problem. Design Observatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Addiction (Abingdon, England) England), 2022-06, Vol.117 (6), p.1787-1793
Main Authors: Chan, Gary C. K., Sun, Tianze, Lim, Carmen, Stjepanović, Daniel, Rutherford, Brienna, Johnson, Benjamin, Hall, Wayne, Leung, Janni
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aged
Amphetamine
Amphetamine-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Amphetamines
Australia - epidemiology
bias
Childbirth & labor
Cross-Sectional Studies
Drug development
Female
Females
Humans
Male
Media coverage
meth
Methamphetamine
Middle Aged
Polls & surveys
Population
population survey
under‐reporting
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Summary:Aim To test (1) if there was a change in self‐reported lifetime prevalence of meth/amphetamine use by birth cohort and (2) if the extent of under‐reporting of meth/amphetamine use was associated with the proportion of the population who nominated meth/amphetamine as a drug problem. Design Observational study using seven waves of repeated cross‐sectional nationally representative household surveys between 2001 and 2019. Setting Australia. Participants Participants were from three birth cohorts: 1951–60 (age 68–77 at the 2019 survey; n = 29 458; 55% female), 1961–1970 (age 58–67; n = 29 859; 57% female) and 1971–1980 (age 48–57; n = 28 758; 59% female). Data were weighted to align the sample to the Australian population. Measurements Past year meth/amphetamine use; under‐reporting of lifetime meth/amphetamine use in each birth cohort, year and survey stratum (operationalised as the difference between self‐reported lifetime prevalence in 2001 and that of each subsequent year); proportion of the population who nominated meth/amphetamine as a drug problem in each birth cohort, year and survey stratum. Under‐reporting was regressed on the proportion of people holding negative attitude towards meth/amphetamine. Survey year and birth cohort were adjusted for. Findings Between 2001 and 2019, the lifetime prevalence of meth/amphetamine decreased from 6.1% (95% CI = 5.3–6.9) to 1.7% (95% CI = 1.2–2.2) in the 1951–1960 birth cohort (p 
ISSN:0965-2140
1360-0443
DOI:10.1111/add.15783