African Americans Substance Use Disorders

More Black (36%) than White (26%) men abstain from alcohol, and fewer Black (21%) than White (31%) men are frequent drinkers. The groups are more similar in frequent heavy drinking (15% and 12%, respectively) (Caetano & Clark, 1995).

More Black (55%) than White (39%) women abstain from alcohol, and fewer Black (10%) than White (19%) women are frequent drinkers. Somewhat more Black (5%) than White (2%) women are frequent heavy drinkers (Caetano & Clark, 1995).

In a major national epidemiological study, Blacks had lower rates of substance use disorders than Whites (Kessler et al., 1994).

Cirrhosis mortality has decreased among African Americans but is still about 25% higher than for Whites (Singh & Hoyert, 2000).

Among individuals aged 12 and older, Blacks (36%) are less likely than American Indians (54%) and Whites (42%), and more likely than Hispanics (30%) and Asians (19%), to have ever used an illicit drug (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001a).

Black youth (aged 12 to 17) are similar to Asian youth and less likely than youth of other ethnic groups to use or abuse alcohol. Black youth were slightly less likely than White and Hispanic youth but more likely than Asian youth to have ever used an illicit drug (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001a).

Blacks are 13% of the U.S. population but are 25% of drug-related emergency room visits (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2002).

Of all AIDS cases among African American adult and adolescent males, 43% are due to injecting drugs or having sex with injecting drug users compared to 18% of cases among White men (Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, 2002).

Similar percentages of AIDS cases among African American and White women are due to injecting drugs (about 40%) and to having sex with injecting drug users (about 15%) (Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, 2002).

About half of pediatric AIDS cases among African Americans and Whites are due to the mother's injection drug use or having sex with an injecting drug user (Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, 2002).