December 7, 2001 Older Adults in Substance Abuse Treatment |
In Brief |
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This report examines trends in admissions of adults aged 55 or older to publicly funded substance abuse treatment facilities. In 1999, this age group comprised approximately 58 million people in the United States. The aging of the baby boom generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) will cause that number to almost double by 2030, reaching 108 million. If the relatively low rates of substance abuse among older adults were to remain the same as in 1995, treatment need would be 1½ times greater in 2030 because of this population growth.1 However, the baby boom generation has higher rates of lifetime alcohol and drug use than did the previous generation, and evidence suggests that these higher rates will persist as the group ages.2, 3 Thus, the need for substance abuse treatment among older adults is expected to increase. The Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) permits monitoring of trends among older adults admitted to substance abuse treatment in publicly funded facilities. In 1999, there were 50,700 admissions aged 55 or older to publicly funded substance abuse treatment (Table 1). The majority (81 percent) were male. The admission rate for adults aged 55 or older was 88 per 100,000, which was considerably lower than the rate of 719 admissions per 100,000 for the population aged 12 or older (data not shown). |
Between 1994 and 1999, annual substance abuse treatment admissions among persons aged 55 or older decreased by 3 percent, from 52,200 to 50,700 (Table 1). This decrease was similar to that shown in the total treatment population. Adults aged 55 to 59 made up the largest part of the older adult treatment population. This proportion increased from 49 percent in 1994 to 55 percent in 1999 (Figure 1). Alcohol was the primary substance of abuse at admission for all age groups, including individuals aged 55 or older (Table 1). However, alcohol admissions declined by 9 percent between 1994 and 1999 both for men and for women in that age group (Figure 2). Among older adults, admissions for illicit drugs increased by 25 percent for men and 43 percent for women over this time period, although overall admissions remained low. |
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Source: 1999 SAMHSA Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).
Referral Source Older adults were more likely than younger adults to be referred to treatment by health care providers and less likely to enter treatment through the criminal justice system (data not shown). Among adults aged 55 or older, 13 percent were referred by health care providers, compared with 7 percent of admissions under age 55. Thirty percent of adults aged 55 or older were referred through the criminal justice system, compared with 37 percent of younger admissions. Age at First Use First use of drugs or first alcohol intoxication occurred at a younger age among men aged 55 or older than among women in that age group (Figure 3). Fifty percent of the men in this age group had initiated drug or alcohol use by the age of 17. Women in this group, however, were generally older when they began their drug and alcohol use, with more than one quarter reporting that their first use occurred after age 30. |
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Source: 1999 SAMHSA Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).
Admissions by State In 1999, the most populous States tended to have the largest numbers of older adults entering substance abuse treatment, but not necessarily the highest admission rates (Table 2). Admission rates among adults aged 55 or older tended to be highest in northern and northeastern States. |
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End Notes 1Gfroerer, J.C., & Epstein, J.F. (1999). Marijuana initiates and their impact on future drug abuse treatment need. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 54, 229-237. 2Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2000). Summary of findings from the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA Series: H-12, DHHS Publication No. SMA 00-3466). Rockville, MD: Author. 3Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (1998). Substance abuse among older adults (DHHS Publication No. SMA 98-3179). Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. |
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Source: 1999 SAMHSA Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).
The Drug and Alcohol
Services Information System (DASIS) is an integrated data system maintained
by the Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA). One component of DASIS
is the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), a national-level dataset comprising
State administrative data from treatment facilities receiving public funds.
The TEDS system includes records for some 1.6 million substance abuse treatment
admissions annually. TEDS records represent admissions rather than individuals,
as a person may be admitted to treatment more than once.
The DASIS Report is prepared by the Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA; Synectics for Management Decisions, Inc., Arlington, Virginia; and RTI, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Information and data for this issue are based on data reported to TEDS through April 16, 2001. Access the latest TEDS reports at: Access the latest TEDS public use files at: |
The DASIS Report is published periodically by the Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission from SAMHSA. Additional copies of this report may be downloaded from http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/facts.cfm. Citation of the source is appreciated. Other reports from the Office of Applied Studies are also available on-line at the OAS home page: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov. |
This page was last updated on May 16, 2008. |
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