Gender Comparisons among Asian American and Pacific Islander Patients in Drug Dependency Treatment

BACKGROUND:

Few studies have focused on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), despite indications of increasing substance abuse among AAPIs in recent years.

OBJECTIVES:

This prospective longitudinal study examined gender differences among AAPIs in treatment.

METHODS:

The study included 567 (177 women, 390 men) AAPI patients drawn from two prior studies, one with 32 community treatment programs in 13 California counties (CalTOP, 3, 9 months), and another project including 36 treatment sites in 5 California counties (TSI, 3, 12 months). Baseline and follow-up assessments utilized the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). A subset of patients was assessed at 3 and 9/12 months (n = 106).

RESULTS:

  Significant gender-related differences were observed at baseline: fewer women than men were employed or never married. More women were living with someone having alcohol and drug problems. Methamphetamine was the primary drug for women and men, followed by alcohol and heroin. Compared to AAPI men, AAPI women reported greater problem severity in family/social relationships (0.18 vs. 0.11, p <.001), employment (0.68 vs. 0.56, p <.001), and mental health (0.19 vs. 0.14, p <.01). Relative to women, AAPI men reported greater treatment satisfaction at the 3-month follow-up. Significant improvements at follow-up were observed in family, alcohol, drug, and legal domains for both genders, and in mental health for men only. Compared to AAPI men, AAPI women demonstrated significantly greater improvements in drug problems (ΔASI = 0.07, p <.05).

CONCLUSIONS:

Gender differences revealed in this study suggest a need for a greater treatment focus on psychiatric problems for AAPI women and drug use problems for AAPI men.

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By:  Han Y1, Lin V2, Wu F3, Hser YI2.

• 1 Department of Clinical , Social and Administrative Sciences, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , Michigan , USA.
• 2 Integrated Substance Abuse Treatment, University of California, Los Angeles , Los Angeles , California , USA.
• 3 Research and Evaluation Services Unit, Los Angeles County , Los Angeles , California , USA.
• Subst Use Misuse. 2016 Apr 12:1-11.  

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