Concerts, bars, parties, and raves: Differential risk for drug use among high school seniors according to venue attendance

Abstract

Background: Nightlife attendance is an established risk factor for drug use, but studies have not focused on adolescent general population samples or compared risk according to type(s) of venues attended. We examined whether attendance of various types of venues was associated with drug use. Methods: Data were examined from an annual nationally representative survey of high school seniors in the US (2014–2019, N = 11,565). We determined whether past-year attendance of parties, concerts, bars or nightclubs, and raves or dance music events was associated with past-year drug use using mixed-effects logistic regression. Mall and movie attendance were examined as negative controls. Results: Compared to those who reported not attending specific venues, attending parties was associated with higher odds of using alcohol in particular (aOR = 5.03, 95% CI: 3.92–6.44). Attending concerts was associated with higher odds for use of alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy, and nonmedical use of prescription stimulants and opioids. All drugs examined were concentrated among those who attend bars, nightclubs, raves, and dance parties. Rave or dance party attendance was associated with higher odds for use of ecstasy (aOR = 3.71, 95% CI: 2.50–5.50) and methamphetamine (aOR = 4.92, 95% CI: 2.43–9.96) in particular, and bar or nightclub attendance was associated with higher odds of use of cocaine (aOR = 6.49, 95% CI: 4.37–9.63), ecstasy (aOR = 6.49, 95% CI: 4.54–9.27), and methamphetamine (aOR = 5.49, 95% CI: 2.57–11.72) in particular. Attending movies was associated with lower odds for use of cocaine and nonmedical prescription stimulant use. Conclusion: We determined differential risk of drug use depending on types of venues attended by adolescents.

Keywords:

• Adolescents
• nightlife
• ecstasy
• methamphetamine
• cocaine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

All authors are responsible for this reported research. J. Palamar conceptualized and designed the study. C. Rutherford conducted the statistical analyses and K. Keyes and C. Cleland provided mentorship regarding analyses. All authors contributed to the drafting of the initial manuscript, interpreted results, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R01DA044207 (PI: Palamar), K01DA038800 (PI: Palamar), and P30DA011041 (PI: Hagan). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.