Rural attitudes, opinions, and drug use

There are two primary purposes of this paper. The first is to summarize the results of a survey conducted in a rural area of Kentucky on attitudes and behaviors regarding substance use. The second purpose is to examine differences in drug attitudes and behaviors for higher and lower density rural areas. Participants for this study were contacted by telephone in March 1996. The sample was generated by random digit dialing for eight county telephone exchanges. The sample included 334 respondents from the eight counties who were grouped into respondents from higher density areas (n = 132) and lower density areas (n = 202). Results indicated that respondents from both higher density and lower density areas were similar on drug use and attitudes. However, lower density areas reported their county as a worse place to live and less safe than respondents from higher density areas. Respondents from lower density areas were also more likely to report there was more alcohol/drug use and more alcohol bootlegging in the past year, and that bootlegging alcohol is a serious problem in their county. Future research could include the examination of heterogeneity of rural areas using different indices.