Michael Fendrich

Michael Fendrich
University of Connecticut | UConn · School of Social Work

Ph.D

About

177
Publications
25,781
Reads
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7,553
Citations
Additional affiliations
September 2004 - June 2013
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Position
  • Manager
September 1991 - August 2004
University of Illinois Chicago
Position
  • Professor (Full)
September 1991 - August 2004
University of Illinois Chicago
Position
  • Professor (Full)

Publications

Publications (177)
Article
Background: Adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have been well-documented, but only a few studies have characterized distinct trajectories of anxiety over time. Further, whether specific emotion regulation and coping efforts to manage pandemic distress predict these distinct trajectories remains unexamined. Aims: The study...
Article
The COVID-19 Stressors Scale measures individuals’ appraisals of stressors related to the pandemic. Measurement of perceptions of stressors is necessary to understand the socioemotional impacts of not only the COVID-19 pandemic, but other disasters. The study examined the factor structure of the scale among adults in the U.S. over six time points....
Article
Introduction social isolation and forced quarantines during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a steep and persistent rise in alcohol consumption among US adults. While the association between loneliness and drinking is well established, less is known about the impact of social isolation (a known correlate of loneliness) and t...
Article
Full-text available
Stress exposure often leads to poor mental health, but whether certain types of stressors predict differential levels of mental health symptoms and whether coping differentially moderates these associations remain untested. This study examined whether COVID-19 stressor types (financial-, activity-, and infection-related) differentially predicted su...
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Full-text available
As the pandemic wrought wide-reaching disruption across the world, younger adults appeared to be faring more poorly than other adults. We hypothesized that younger adults might possess fewer emotion regulation resources and skills, accounting for their relatively high levels of distress. In data gathered from a national sample of 1258 adults, we ex...
Article
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Objectives Since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, additional risk factors affecting family caregivers’ mental health have arisen. Therefore, personal stress coping strategies and family dynamics became important factors in reducing the impact of the pandemic on family caregivers’ mental health. The present research aimed to estimate the association...
Article
Background and Objectives People commonly report positive changes following stressful experiences (perceived posttraumatic growth; PPTG), yet whether PPTG validly reflects positive changes remains unestablished. Design and Methods We tested the extent to which COVID-19 pandemic-related PPTG relates to positive changes in corresponding psychosocial...
Article
Social media use increased early in the Covid-19 pandemic, but little information is available about its impact. The present study examined associations of frequency of use of different social media and the motives for use with subsequent social well-being and mental health. Data were gathered on a nationwide sample of 843 Americans during the firs...
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The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unprecedented challenges and demands for parents or caregivers of children who experienced disruptions in social support and feelings of isolation. Mindful emotion regulation may be a resilient factor for parents’ psychosocial outcomes. Mindful emotion regulation refers to individuals’ inherent capacities to reg...
Article
Little is known about factors that contribute to mental health help-seeking during disasters beyond attitudes toward counseling. The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) global pandemic dramatically impacted individuals, families, and communities worldwide. The pandemic led to significant disruptions to family routines, and evidence suggests an increase in instan...
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Background Mobile crisis (MC) services is a pediatric behavioral health service that diverts those who need a lower level of care away from the Emergency Department (ED), enabling EDs to focus on providing acute behavioral health services. However, despite MC’s efficacy, utilization could be enhanced. Implementation science provides an informative...
Article
We compared emerging adults with older adults who were admitted to the Drug Treatment Court (DTC) in a large Midwestern county. Emerging adults were more likely to be lower risk and to be opioid/heroin users. Compared to older adults, emerging adults were more likely to have increased violations in the DTC program. Emerging adults compared to older...
Article
Full-text available
As the pandemic caused widespread disruption across the world, studies suggested younger adults were faring more poorly than other adults. We hypothesized that younger adults might possess fewer emotion regulation resources and skills, accounting for their greater distress. In a national sample of 1528 adults, we examined how baseline resources (in...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: Research from the early months of the SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) pandemic identifies many COVID-related stressors, including fears of infection, disruptions to work/learning and daily self-care routines, and lack of access to reliable information and resources. Measuring the complex, ongoing nature of the stressors related to COVID-19 is of...
Preprint
Parents have been vulnerable to psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the disruptions in social support including restricted connections to support networks and loss of access to healthcare, schools and day care centers, and community services. Based on the literature associating mindful emotion regulation with loneliness and p...
Article
Background: The negative mental health impact of coronavirus disease 2019-related stressors may be heightened for those caring for children, who bear responsibity for their welfare during disasters. Aim: Based on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, we inquired whether caregivers' emotion regulation and coping behavior were associated w...
Article
Full-text available
Spreading rapidly across the United States beginning in the spring of 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic radically disrupted Americans’ lives. Previous studies of community-wide disasters suggested people are fairly resilient and identified resources and strategies that promote that resilience. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic is in s...
Article
Background: In the current opioid overdose epidemic, treatment retention among clients receiving medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid dependence is a significant and growing concern among treatment providers, policymakers, and researchers. Methods: We examined a sample of clients enrolled in a federally funded MAT expansion program imple...
Article
Background We sought to understand the association between heavy alcohol and frequent drug use and non-adherence to recommended social distancing and personal hygiene guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19 early in the US pandemic. Methods A survey was offered on the crowdsourcing platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) during April 202...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The rapid emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States has dramatically altered daily life and taken a toll on Americans' physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. Based on previous widespread disasters, future high prevalence of short- and long-term adverse mental health consequences are...
Article
Scales assessing stressor exposure often fail to demonstrate adequate psychometric qualities, demonstrating low interitem reliability or complex factor structures, as would be expected, given that the majority of stressors are independent events. However, in large-scale mass crisis events, the stressors may be highly interrelated, indicating shared...
Article
Importance: Documenting Americans' stress responses to an unprecedented pandemic and their degree of adherence to CDC guidelines is essential for mental health interventions and policy-making. Objective: To provide the first snapshot of immediate impact of COVID-19 on Americans' stress, coping, and guideline adherence. Design: Data were collec...
Article
As social workers and nurses comprise much of the substance dependence treatment team, it is critical to evaluate how well they perform in a context where they bring different professional orientations and perform different treatment roles. The therapeutic alliance (TA) is one clinical outcome indicator that is potentially predictive of client enga...
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Recruitment and retention of low-income African Americans in clinical trials is challenging. This paper reports recruitment and retention strategies that yielded high rates for both in a clinical trial pilot to improve hypertension self-management among low-income African Americans. The study successfully recruited 96.7% (59 of 61 participants) wit...
Article
This study was conducted to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a self-report activity diary completed by parents and older children to assess the child’s daily activity in children with and without special needs. The study included 36 child/parent dyads stratified by child age and diagnosis. Parents (n = 36) and children ≥13 years (n = 12...
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Background: Drug overdose (OD) is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States and most of these deaths involve opioids. Despite research linking opioid abuse to mental illness, and evidence suggesting a large portion of opioid OD deaths are suicides, OD prevention strategies scarcely take into account mental health risk factors. Me...
Article
Objective: Youths are using emergency departments (EDs) for behavioral health services in record numbers, even though EDs are suboptimal settings for service delivery. In this article, the authors evaluated a mobile crisis service intervention implemented in Connecticut with the aim of examining whether the intervention was associated with reduced...
Article
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We sought to understand the implementation of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) access for opioid-involved participants in an urban Midwestern drug treatment court (DTC) over a time period beginning in October 2012 and ending in June 2016. Among those whose primary substance problem on the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) was identified as heroin o...
Article
Individuals with multiple chronic diseases are often prescribed medications for each condition and thus must manage a drug regimen. Medication self-management is challenging for most individuals with chronic diseases, but it can be especially difficult for African American older women. This study investigated how medical mistrust, caregiver role st...
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Alcohol and other drug (AOD) misuse is highly prevalent among young adults and creates myriad long-term problematic social, economic, and health consequences. Current treatments aimed at preventing or alleviating AOD misuse have demonstrated fairly inconsistent and weak effectiveness and, thus, are far from a complete solution. In this review, we d...
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This study investigates prior prescription opioid misuse in a cohort of heroin users whose progress was tracked in a treatment study conducted in the US from 2006 to 2010. Half of the sample misused prescription opioids (“other opiates/analgesics”) prior to their onset of heroin misuse (POBs). We found that POBs were demographically younger and mor...
Article
Objectives: We sought to understand how pharmacists viewed and used a newly implemented prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). We also sought to understand pharmacist orientation toward dispensing of controlled substances and the people who obtain them. Methods: We conducted three mini focus groups. The focus group findings were used to in...
Chapter
This chapter focuses on the use of biological measures for assessing illicit drugs, such as cocaine, marijuana, opiates, amphetamines, as well as for assessing legal drugs with high potential for abuse in “field” studies. Field studies are defined as those that are done in real-life settings. An overview of the major biological tests is provided. S...
Article
Purpose: A family history of alcoholism has been found associated with problematic alcohol use among college students, but less research has examined the effects of family history density of substance use problems in this population. This study examined the prevalence of family history density of substance use problems and its associations with he...
Article
Alcohol misuse is a leading risk factor for serious injury and death. For those experiencing trauma in emergency care settings, recent alcohol misuse history is typically assessed via self-report measures. Since underreporting may be a problem in these settings, objective indicators like long-term biomarkers may be useful for identifying hazardous...
Chapter
This chapter describes a general logic model that can be used as a framework for evaluating community demonstration projects. We then show how this model can be applied to Serve Here Connecticut Project. Consistent with the logic model framework, we discuss program goals and activities, ongoing program monitoring activities, outcome evaluation, and...
Conference Paper
Background: The harmful effects of prenatal drug exposure are well documented, and alcohol and drug use among women are most prevalent in their childbearing years. The overall treatment patterns of pregnant women and treatment effectiveness, however, are not well investigated. This study compares treatment completion rates between pregnant and non-...
Article
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Researchers have increasingly used collateral informants to validate the reports provided by primary research subjects. We assessed the utility of collateral informants for college students in a study that incorporates biomarkers to validate student reports of recent drinking behavior. Students from a Midwestern university were randomly selected fo...
Conference Paper
Heavy episodic drinking places young adults at increased risk for injury and trauma. Despite this, those experiencing serious injuries are not consistently screened for alcohol involvement by health professionals unless there is an obvious sign of alcohol intoxication at the time of the event. When screening occurs, it may employ questions of unkno...
Conference Paper
Background: Driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated (DUI/DWI) continues to be a severe and persistent threat to public safety. It is estimated that more than 13 percent of persons aged 16 or older (30 million persons) drove under the influence of alcohol and/or illicit drugs in the past 12 months. Although it is recognized that the...
Article
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This study aimed to evaluate the performance of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in hair and fingernails as a long-term alcohol biomarker. Cross-sectional survey with probability sampling. Midwestern United States. Participants were 606 undergraduate college students between the ages of 18 and 25 years at the time of selection for potential study participat...
Conference Paper
Background: Believing that individuals should be intrinsically motivated, rather than extrinsically forced to change, those who are forced into treatment are known to be less motivated and more resistant compared with those who enter voluntarily. Persons who are forced to participate in substance abuse treatment programs (i.e., engage treatment by...
Conference Paper
Background: Currently, thousands of drug involved offenders are serving in programs nationwide where teams of drug court professionals (judges, prosecutors, and public defenders) typically assign them to a year long regimen of residential and outpatient treatment options, periodic drug testing, appearances before the judge and case management in li...
Conference Paper
Background: Bioecological Systems Theory (BST; Bronfenbrenner, 1993) may help us understand the context of multiple risk issues in low income African American women at disproportionate HIV risk. Preliminary baseline data from an ongoing prospective study were used to examine one of several BST-based models, including individual and sociocultural va...
Article
Some survey research has documented distress in respondents with pre-existing emotional vulnerabilities, suggesting the possibility of harm. In this study, respondents were interviewed about a personally distressing event; mood, stress, and emotional reactions were assessed. Two days later, respondents participated in interventions to either enhanc...
Article
Objective: The consumption of alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmED) is prevalent among college students as is hazardous drinking, a drinking pattern that places one at risk for alcohol-related harm. The present study, therefore, examined associations between AmED use, hazardous drinking, and alcohol-related consequences in college students. Met...
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The current study focuses on three dimensions of treatment neighborhood environments that may influence treatment retention: neighborhood disadvantage, stability, and concentrated immigration. We examined treatment outcomes for a total of 9,319 individuals who were admitted for initial treatment in 56 outpatient clinics in Cook County, Illinois. Ce...
Chapter
This chapter is a brief introductory perspective on epidemiology—in particular psychiatric epidemiology—a field which encompasses the study of both addiction and mental illness. This perspective is in contrast to the typical clinical perspectives held by many social workers whose primary interest is in directly treating or addressing problems at th...
Article
Full-text available
The persistent HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM) suggests that continued research on factors associated with risky sexual behavior is necessary. Drawing on prior literature, the role of depression and substance use in HIV risk is also inconclusive. Generalizability of past findings may also be limited to the extent that research ha...
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Full-text available
Over the past decade, the use of hair specimens for the long-term detection of the alcohol biomarker ethyl glucuronide has been increasing in popularity and usage. We evaluated the usefulness of fingernail clippings as a suitable alternative to hair for ethyl glucuronide detection. A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the det...
Conference Paper
Alcohol biomarkers are an important alcohol treatment tool to detect past alcohol consumption and to identify alcohol-related medical conditions. Newer alcohol biomarkers such as ethyl glucuronide (EtG) represent a departure from older alcohol biomarkers in their ability to both detect alcohol specifically and minimal levels of alcohol use even day...
Article
Over the past four decades, research has consistently documented negative correlations between the Crowne–Marlowe (CM) social desirability trait scale and numerous measures of sensitive behaviors, conditions, and opinions. These findings have been interpreted as evidence that persons with self-presentation concerns tend to under-report negative inf...
Article
Drawing on the social capital literature, we hypothesized that civic engagement, as measured by participation in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender–related community activities, would be an important protective factor with respect to sexual risk behavior. Accordingly, we examined the association between participation and three measures of risk...
Conference Paper
Background and Purpose: Heavy episodic (binge) drinking (HED), has gained national attention as one of the leading health problems affecting college students. The impact of the growing number of prevention and intervention programs aimed at addressing college students' HED and alcohol-related problems (ARP) may be limited if students are not aware...
Article
We examined the sociodemographic correlates of energy drink use and the differences between those who use them with and without alcohol in a representative community sample. A random-digit-dial landline telephone survey of adults in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area responded to questions about energy drink and alcohol plus energy drink use. Almost one...
Conference Paper
The trauma and stress of homelessness is believed to influence individuals long after they attain permanent housing. We investigate the degree to which prior homeless experiences may influence the accuracy of self-reports obtained in a substance use survey. Data to do so come from two community surveys in Chicago, Illinois that employed probability...
Conference Paper
Objective: Since most studies on risky sexual behavior (RSB) of men having sex with men (MSM) rely on convenience samples, they have limited generalizability to the larger population. Moreover, few of these studies have simultaneously investigated the effect of depression and substance use on RSB. Using a probability sample, the current study exami...
Article
Researchers who study the etiology of college drinking typically employ measures of alcohol-use behaviors as outcomes; however, relatively little is known about the properties of alcohol-related problems (AP). This study aims to develop a single continuous measure of AP. The sample included 531 undergraduate college students who were surveyed in Ma...
Article
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Employing data from two Chicago-based household probability samples of men who have sex with men (MSM) implemented 5 years apart (the "UMHS 1997" and the "2002 MSM supplement" studies), we evaluated changes in risk behavior as well as the potential viability of two alternative perspectives for explaining these changes--risk management and safe-sex...
Article
This study examines the relationship between self-reported symptoms of substance dependence and risky sexual behavior among 187 HIV-negative men who have sex with men. In a supplement to a Chicago household survey, using random probability sampling, men who reported consensual sex with other men or who identified as gay or bisexual were selected fo...
Article
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Background and Purpose: HIV disease is one of the most stigmatized illnesses in modern history. People with HIV report stigma as a primary stressor and family members experience courtesy stigma or stigma-by-association. As African-American women account for a growing percentage of people with HIV and as people with HIV are living longer, increasing...
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Objectives: African American urban adolescents are one of the fastest growing groups of children affected by their mother’s HIV status. These children experience HIV stigma by association with their HIV-positive mothers. Stigma may contribute to adverse outcomes for these teens. Methods: The authors describe a multistage process of scale constructi...
Conference Paper
Little research is currently available that evaluates psychological mechanisms that may be associated with the accuracy of drug use reporting in epidemiologic surveys. Given that underreporting of drug use continues to be a major concern, epidemiologists should explore measures associated with this behavior so that they can be adjusted for in etiol...
Article
This study examined: 1) the prevalence of negative beliefs related to terrorism and 2) whether these beliefs were related to distress and drinking. Respondents (N = 1453) in a five-wave longitudinal cohort study sampled from a United States university workplace were surveyed by mail between 1996 and 2003. Instruments assessed were: negative beliefs...
Article
Full-text available
In recent years, audio computer-assisted self-interviews (ACASI) have been demonstrated to increase and presumably improve the quality of drug reporting in epidemiologic research. Surprisingly little research is available, however, regarding the potential limitations of this technique. For example, it is unclear what effects computer literacy may h...
Article
Grandparents and other relatives increasingly assume the role of primary caregiver to minor children. This study interviewed family members caring for children whose parents were not available due to parental incarceration, other involvement in the criminal justice system, and substance abuse-related issues. Interviews with 25 African American wome...
Conference Paper
Background: After 26 years since the first documented case of AIDS in the United States, there seems to be resurgence of new infections. Current data suggests men who have sex with other men (MSM) are particularly vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In the current study, we examine the relationship between two measures...
Conference Paper
We compared patterns of potentially high risk sexual behavior and their association with reported patterns of heavy drinking, use of inhalants, ecstasy, and other drugs during the past six months in two household probability samples of men who have sex with men (MSM). Samples were drawn from the City of Chicago for two different studies conducted f...
Conference Paper
We compared problems with substance use, and history of substance use treatment in a sample of urban MSM with a general population sample of men drawn from the same urban area. Men in both samples completed audio computer-assisted self-interviews (ACASI), including questions on substance use, problems related to substance use experienced in the pas...
Conference Paper
The validation of self-reported substance use in epidemiologic surveys using biological assays is well-documented. The accuracy of other survey self-reports, however, are more difficult due to the absence of gold standard auxiliary information. Sexual practices are a case in point, as it is impractical to confirm survey reports of these behaviors....
Article
To understand the validity of self-reported recent drug use in men who have sex with men (MSM). We obtained a probability sample of Chicago men who have sex with men (MSM; n=216) and administered urine and saliva drug testing after a self-administered interview. Analyses examined participation in drug testing, the agreement between self-reported pa...
Article
This study compares a sample of urban men who have sex with men (MSM) with a general population sample of men in the same city on self-reported problems with substance use indicative of dependence and history of substance use treatment. Both samples were randomly selected using multistage probability methods. All participants completed audio comput...
Article
This paper explores whether elevated rates of self-reported substance use among MSM compared to other males may be an artifact of reporting bias. Past month prevalence rates of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy, and Ketamine use were compared between a sample of men who have sex with men (MSM), and a general household sample of m...
Article
Full-text available
In this study, we developed an HIV transmission risk scale and examined its psychometric properties using data on sexual behavior obtained from a probability sample of adult men who have sex with men living in Chicago. We used Messick's (Am Psychol 50:741-749, 1995) conceptualization of unified validity theory to organize the psychometric propertie...
Article
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This study investigated the impact of the 9/11 attacks on substance use in Chicago, Illinois. The study design was a cross-sectional, audio-computer-assisted self-interview survey conducted in 2001 and 2002. Biological samples were also collected for toxicological analyses. Using a multistage area probability design, residents between the ages of 1...
Article
At-risk drinking is of particular concern in Wisconsin. This study investigated the prevalence and demographic characteristics of hazardous drinkers in the Milwaukee area. The study design was a cross-sectional survey. Data were collected by means of telephone interviews as part of the 2005 Greater Milwaukee Survey. From 2614 households randomly se...
Article
WE ADMINISTERED DEBRIEFING PROBES TO gauge respondent discomfort in reaction to sensitive questions. These probes assessed respondents' own reactions to being asked to report on substance use (subjective discomfort), as well as their beliefs about the reaction of others (projective discomfort). We investigated whether a sample of men from the gener...
Article
Questions regarding the nature of the association between drug use and risk of homelessness remain unresolved and have important policy implications. To address this issue, data are presented from a 2001 community survey in Chicago, Illinois that collected information regarding histories of drug use behaviors and homeless experiences from 627 adult...
Article
Background Questions regarding the nature of the association between drug use and risk of homelessness remain unresolved and have important policy implications. Methods To address this issue, data are presented from a 2001 community survey in Chicago, Illinois that collected information regarding histories of drug use behaviors and homeless experie...
Article
This study examined substance abuse treatment providers' perceptions of the gender-specific service needs of women in treatment as well as the obstacles that impede the delivery of services to meet those needs. Surveys were administered to more than 100 staff members of five treatment agencies that were participating in the Chicago Practice Improve...
Article
Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are federally-mandated, locally-administered groups charged with evaluating risks and benefits of human participant research at their institution. To a greater or lesser extent, risks and potential benefits exist in virtually any research with human participants, including research in the behavioral/social science...
Article
Full-text available
Data were analyzed from a multistage probability household survey of over 600 adults, ages 18-40 from the city of Chicago conducted during 2001-2002. The survey employed audio computer-assisted self-interviews to obtain information about drug use. To investigate race/ethnicity differences in reporting validity, drug test results were compared with...
Article
Well-documented errors in the reporting of drug-related behaviors have been attributed to several sources. These include: 1) respondent difficulties in understanding survey questions, 2) problems in recalling the information necessary to accurately answer these questions, and 3) social pressures that discourage accurate reporting. We report covaria...
Article
We compared responses to questions about tobacco use and passive exposure to smoking with biological tests for cotinine in order to estimate tobacco-reporting validity in an epidemiological survey on drug use. Respondents identified via multistage sampling (n=627) completed household surveys that were administered using an Audio Computer-Assisted S...