Prescription drug misuse among young adults: Looking across youth cultures

Introduction and Aims Youth cultures play a key role in the social organisation of drug trends among young people; the current prescription drug misuse trend is no different. The authors evaluated whether patterns of prescription drug misuse differed across several youth cultures. Design and Methods Using field survey methods and time–space sampling during 2011, the authors assessed the patterns and prevalence of prescription drug misuse among young adults who are socially active in various urban youth cultures (n = 1781). Results The prevalence of lifetime prescription drug misuse is highest within indie rock scenes (52.5%), electronic dance music scenes (52.1%), lesbian parties (53.8%) and alt scenes (50.9%). Prescription drug misuse was lowest among young adults in hip‐hop scenes (25.0%). These findings were upheld in logistic regression analyses that accounted for demographic differences across youth cultures: indie rock scenes (adjusted odds ratio = 2.11), electronic dance music scenes (adjusted odds ratio = 2.20), lesbian parties (adjusted odds ratio = 2.30) and alt scenes (adjusted odds ratio = 2.65) all reported statistically significant (P