Consistency of self-reported drug use among electronic dance music party attendees

Longitudinal studies have found that recanting of drug use is common. We investigate the extent to which individuals in a high-risk population-electronic dance music (EDM) party attendees-provide inconsistent reports of drug use.

Nine hundred and thirty-three EDM party attendees were intercept-surveyed before entering randomly selected parties in 2017. A quarter (n = 236) completed the optional follow-up survey (63.1% of those providing an email address to be contacted for follow up). We compared self-reported past-year drug use on baseline and follow-up surveys (mean = 3.6 days post-baseline) among those who completed both. Predictors for providing discordant responses were also examined.

About 42.4% provided a discordant response between surveys, but discord regarding reported use of individual drugs (measured in changes in absolute percentage) ranged from 0.0% to 5.1%. At follow up, prevalence of reported use of LSD decreased (by 3.8%, P = 0.013) and prevalence of reported use of shrooms also decreased (by 5.1%, P = 0.005); however, test-retest reliability was strong or almost perfect for all 17 drugs (κ range: 0.88-1.00). Those reporting the use of a higher number of drugs at baseline were at increased risk of providing discordant responses. Those surveyed outside of festivals were less likely to provide more discordant responses than those surveyed outside of nightclubs.

Although reporting of drug use was very reliable in this high-risk population, inconsistent self-reported use of some drugs was still common. Research is needed to determine how to acquire more accurate responses in this population at the point of recruitment without relying on follow-up surveys.