Modeling The Effects Of Substance Dependence On General Self-Reported Health Using Nominal Regression

The goal of this research project was to produce a model of the effects of drug dependence on general self-rated health. Due to power issues, two additional models, one for cocaine and one for heroin, were required. The models used data from the 2005-2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The result of this effort was a ranking of the effects of drug dependence on general health for individuals and for the study population. The model controlled for infectious, chronic and mental illness as well as sociodemographic variables. Significantly increased odds ratios were found for alcohol, marijuana, analgesics, and cocaine at p \u3c .001, and for heroin at p \u3c .01. A ranking of odds ratios was constructed, but wide confidence intervals make the scale difficult to interpret and thus less useful for guiding policy