[Do adolescents of the Parisian suburbs take more drugs than others?].

BACKGROUND

Because official statistics (e.g. mortality and morbidity data) report the high prevalence of drug abusers in the Parisian region, we hypothesized that drug use is higher in Parisian suburbs than in other regions of France.

METHODS

Two epidemiological surveys were carried out in 1993: one among 12,391 adolescents in secondary schools aged 11 to 19, another among 2,821 youth, aged 16 to 24, in the scholar rehabilitation system. The level of drug use (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drugs) and associated behavior (violent behavior, school absenteeism, suicide attempt and road accidents) was compared between youth living in the Ile-de-France region (IDF) and youth living outside the region (NIDF).

RESULTS

1/Alcohol and tobacco consumption rates were lower in the IDF than in the NIDF; 2/There was no statistical difference between the illicit drug consumption rates in IDF and NIDF; 3/The association between alcohol, tobacco and cannabis was more frequent in IDF than in NIDF; 4/There was an association between drug use and the other behavioral problems among French youth, independent of the region.

CONCLUSION

In 1993, there was no difference between Parisian region and the outside of the region, as far as drug consumption is concerned. One can expect, in the future, a more homogeneous pattern of mortality and morbidity statistics between regions.