Trajectories of Substance-Specific Preventive Care Receipt and Its Time Varying Relationship With Substance Use From...

Little is known about adolescents' reporting of substance-specific preventive care receipt from mid-adolescence through young adulthood.

Analyses conducted in 2024 used longitudinal NEXT Generation Health Study data (2010-2017) from 2,586 respondents reporting smoking, alcohol, and drug preventive care receipt, and annual smoking, alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use from ages 15-23 years. Substance-specific preventive care receipt measure was categorized as-no preventive care receipt, asked only, and asked and advised "(advised)." Longitudinal multinomial logistic regressions, stratified by biologic sex (i.e., female, male), examined associations of each substance-specific preventive care receipt with age and prior-year substance-specific use, both unadjusted and adjusted for background characteristics.

Analyses demonstrated smoking, alcohol, and drug advice versus no preventive care receipt significantly increased over time until age 20-21 years for females and 19-20 years for males, then decreased through age 23 years for both. At any age, only one-third of both sexes reported substance-specific advice. Compared with those without use, females with any cigarette or frequent marijuana use were significantly more likely to get substance-specific advice than no preventive care receipt over time; males with frequent alcohol or other drug use were significantly less likely to be asked only than get no preventive care receipt; and both sexes with any cigarette or frequent alcohol use and females with frequent marijuana or other drug use were significantly more likely to get substance-specific advice than asked only.

Gaps in substance-specific preventive care receipt from mid-adolescence through young adulthood for all adolescents and among those with substance use highlight the need to improve longitudinal substance-specific preventive care receipt for all adolescents, and especially for those with substance use.