Drug Abuse Problems are Associated with Poorer Health-Related Quality of Life
Y. Jung, M.-D. KimIntroduction
Drug abuse is defined as the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including illicit drugs. Drug abuse is associated with a range of negative outcomes affecting physical health, psychological well-being, social functioning, and environmental stability, all of which collectively impact an individual’s health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Previous studies have reported that individuals undergoing treatment for drug addiction exhibit significantly lower HRQOL compared to the general population. Among those receiving treatment, improvements in quality of life have been linked to reduced relapse rates.
Objectives
Evaluation of HRQOL in the context of drug abuse should consider cultural variability, and research specific to Asian populations remains limited. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between HRQOL and drug abuse-related problems in a community sample in Korea.
Methods
Data were collected from 500 community-dwelling adults residing in Jeju, Korea. Participants were asked whether they had used opiate (narcotic) analgesics, diet drugs, or illicit drugs during the past 12 months, with responses recorded as “yes” or “no.” Participants who responded “yes” to any of these categories subsequently completed the Drug Abuse Screening Test–10 (DAST–10). HRQOL was measured using the 26-item abbreviated version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument.
Results
In total, 25 participants (5.0%) reported experiencing drug abuse problems within the previous 12 months. Univariate analyses revealed that lower scores across all WHOQOL–BREF domains were significantly associated with the presence of drug abuse problems. Additionally, older age, male sex, lower educational attainment, and lower monthly household income were significantly associated with lower scores in the WHOQOL–BREF domains. Higher depressive symptom severity, as measured by PHQ-9 scores, was also significantly correlated with lower scores in all WHOQOL–BREF domains (Table 1). The results of the multivariate regression analyses are presented in Table 2. After adjusting for relevant covariates, including age group, sex, education, monthly household income, and depressive symptoms, drug abuse problems remained independently associated with lower scores in all WHOQOL–BREF domains.
Image 1: Long description.