195: Substance Use Profile of Adolescents Entering Quebec Youth Protection Centers
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Every year between 4000 and 5000 adolescents are placed in Quebec Youth Protection Centers (YPCs). Many of these adolescents use psychotropic substances that impact their mental and physical well-being. To document the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol and drug use among youth residing in YPCs and to identify factors associated with problematic substance use (PSU) among these adolescents. Between July 2008 and May 2009, adolescents aged 14 to 17 and living in six YPCs across Quebec were recruited on a volunteer basis to participate in a second generation surveillance study on risk behaviours and prevalence of sexually transmitted infections. Data on socio-demographics, substance use and sexual risk behaviours, and certain associated health conditions were obtained by questionnaire during structured, face-to-face interviews. Analyses were carried out on the profiles of participants identified with PSU (measured using the standardized “DEP-ADO” screening tool). Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify correlates of PSU. Of the 578 participants interviewed, 499 youth who had been living in YPCs for less than two years were kept in the analyses to improve reliability of data collected for the year prior to admission (59% boys; median age: boys, 16; girls, 15). During that year, the prevalence of regular substance use (3× weekly and +) was: tobacco, 75%; alcohol, 24%; cannabis, 63%; amphetamines, 17%; and cocaine, 4%. Almost one-third of girls (31%) and one-fifth of boys (21%) reported a first episode of regular use of alcohol before 14 years of age, while 50% of girls and 41% of boys reported a first episode of regular drug use before that age. PSU, measured by “DEP-ADO” and indicating a need for specialized professional intervention, was documented for 58% of girls and 63% of boys. Only 18% of these youth had received therapy for their problematic consumption. In multivariate analysis, factors associated with adolescent PSU were daily use of cigarettes (AOR 6.40 [95% CI 3.90 to 10.48]); precocious use of alcohol (3.99 [95% CI 2.41 to 6.62]); family history of problematic substance use (2.37 [95% CI 1.32 to 4.25]); having at least six sexual partners (lifetime) (3.26 [95% CI 2.00 to 5.31]); and a history of self-mutilation (lifetime) (1.88 [95% CI 2.11 to 3.16]). Substance use is prevalent among adolescents entering YPCs and certain factors are associated with problematic use. Youth with these risk factors merit early and on-going substance use screening by health professionals. Timely detection and referral of adolescents with PSU for therapy may help prevent associated health consequences and decrease their risks of developing life-long dependencies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".