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Twenty Years of Addiction and Mental Illness in Alaska: Using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to Understand Addiction in a Low Population and Rural State

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Abstract

Understanding changes in substance use in a small population state is challenging. Many national datasets restrict data to reduce the probability of identifying persons. Alaska is a small population state (731,000 residents) with a large geographic region (25% the size of the lower 48), a diverse population, and highly variable seasons, with fewer than 10% of the state being road accessible. Given the uniqueness of Alaska, this project sought to understand what could be learned about addiction and its relationships with unemployment and median income in Alaska. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, State and Small Area Estimates (1999–2020) data were analyzed to measure prevalence changes. Outcome prevalence were independently correlated with median income and annual unemployment rate as the annual collection periods varied. Analyses were limited to simple bivariate analyses due to the data restrictions. Median income was found to have stronger correlational relationships and significant relationships with more negative outcomes compared to unemployment. While annual unemployment rates had statistically significant relationships with substance use outcomes, negative mental health outcomes appeared more related to unemployment than median income. Alcohol use in the past month, cigarette and tobacco use, and pain reliever misuse declined while binge drinking in the past month and illicit drug use increased. More people reported depression, serious mental illness, and suicidal ideation and planning over time peaking in the last year of data collection. While NSDUH data provide some idea of the changes in drug use over time, their effectiveness in Alaska is unknown. Many data sources claim they are nationally representative, but these statements cannot be objectively measured. We will use these outcomes and data as a baseline for future studies where we will explore state specific data sources.

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Data Availability

The data used are available for download through the National Drug Use and Health Survey website.

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Funding

We received no funding to support this project.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Alcohol & Addiction Studies, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA

    Parker RD

  2. Institute for Circumpolar Health, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA

    Lessard L

  3. College of Nursing and Public Health, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, USA

    Abram MD

  4. Division of Population Health Sciences, College of Health, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, USA

    Meyer J

Authors
  1. Parker RD
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  2. Lessard L
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  3. Abram MD
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  4. Meyer J
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Contributions

RDP concept, analyses, and manuscript draft. LL, MA, JM review and edit of manuscript draft, tables, and data presentation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Parker RD.

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Conflict of interest

We have no conflicts of interest nor competing interests to report.

Informed Consent

As a secondary data review there were no participant consents. There are no images nor data requiring consent.

Research Involving Human and Animal Participant

This project was determined to be non-human subjects research by the institutional review board based on 45 CFR 46 and the use of deidentified, publicly available data.

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RD, P., L, L., MD, A. et al. Twenty Years of Addiction and Mental Illness in Alaska: Using the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to Understand Addiction in a Low Population and Rural State. J Community Health 47, 680–686 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-022-01098-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-022-01098-0

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