Risk Factors: Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Abuse in Arkansas
Purpose
The purpose of this website is to provide county-level data to support substance
abuse prevention planning and evaluation for the Arkansas Office of Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Prevention (ADAP). This website was developed for the Arkansas Strategic
Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (AR SPF SIG) with funding provided by
the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration. The AR SPF SIG, coordinated by ADAP and the Governor’s Office,
is designed to provide an effective and comprehensive system of substance abuse
prevention services that are sustained, monitored, and evaluated. Data-driven policy
and programmatic decisions are a critical component of the AR SPF SIG.
Data
This website presents school survey and archival data on the prevalence of:
- alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use among adolescents and adults;
- individual, peer, family, school, and community risk and protective factors for
substance use; and
- public health outcomes associated with substance abuse.
Data describing youths are from the Arkansas
Prevention Needs Assessment Survey (APNA) conducted annually by ADAP to
assess the prevalence of substance use and risk and protective factors for public
school students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12. A total of 87,760 students participated
in the 2010 APNA survey. 220 Arkansas School Districts participated, representing
616 schools. For more information about APNA, please use the APNA link above.
Other data were provided by the Arkansas State Police, Highway Safety Office; Arkansas
Department of Health and Human Services; Arkansas Department of Education; Arkansas
Department of Finance and Administration, Alcohol Beverage Control; and the U.S.
Census Bureau.
Methods
For the county level maps, the data were divided into quartiles, or 25% intervals,
based on the prevalence or rate. Higher risk is indicated by darker shading, and
lower risk is indicated by lighter shading. The quartiles provide a way to see which
counties have the highest need for substance abuse prevention activities on various
alcohol- and drug-related indicators. In addition, the state average is provided
on all maps for comparison purposes. Indicator definitions and information on the
source of the data is provided in the lower, right hand corner of the map. For maps
based on APNA data, counties that had no schools participate in APNA are marked
as such. All data presented in the county- and region-level maps are unweighted.
State maps were created using ArcGIS 9.3 software.
For the APNA data, the prevalence estimates reflect only students who participated
in the survey, and do not represent all of the students in the county. Sample sizes
and sample characteristics vary by county and these differences may affect the reliability
of the prevalence estimates. For other agency data, differences in reporting protocols
or enforcement practices may affect the comparability of data.