New psychoactives within polydrug use trajectories-evidence from a mixed-method longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

To provide public health-related research evidence on types and usage patterns of new psychoactive substances (NPS), developmental pathways into NPS and decision-making factors for, and associated harms of, NPS use.

Design

Three-phase mixed-methods design, including a latent class analysis (LCA) of the longitudinal Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS), a narrative analysis of interviews with NPS users and a three-step approach manual method modelling using regressions to reveal classes of substance use and their associated predictors and outcomes.

Setting

Northern Ireland.

Participants

A total of 2039 people who responded to the questions on 'ever use' of the drug variables included at wave 7 (aged 21 years) of the BYDS. Eighty-four narrative interviews

SUBMITTER: Higgins K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8638670 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature