Aims: This study investigates ethnic and socioeconomic risk factors for hospital admissions related to illicit drug abuse in second-generation immigrants in Sweden. Method: Cox analyses of proportional hazards were used to estimate the relative risk of sociodemographic covariates in analyses of register data on hospital admissions because of illicit drug abuse during 1990 - 99. The study population was a national cohort of 1.25 million residents (aged 10 - 30 years). Results: Second-generation immigrants had two- to three fold higher age and sex-adjusted relative risks (RRs) for hospital admissions because of illicit drug use compared with the Swedish majority population with a limited variation between different ethnic groups. The RRs decreased greatly after the model was adjusted for socioeconomic indicators of the childhood household. Intercountry adoptees had the highest risk for hospital admission related to illicit drug abuse of all study groups after adjustment for sociodemographic variables (RR 2.8). Conclusions: Second-generation immigrants are at particular risk for illicit drug abuse in Sweden. Adverse socioeconomic living conditions are very important in explaining this high risk. © 2004, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

youth Migration immigrants Substance abuse Adoption inequity Ethnicity addiction socioeconomic Drug abuse

hospital admission immigrant proportional hazards model Proportional Hazards Models social change register human risk assessment Cohort Studies statistics Ethnic Groups opiate ethnic group priority journal Substance-Related Disorders Street Drugs cannabis cannabis addiction controlled study street drug drug dependence ethnology social mobility cocaine cocaine dependence Sweden school child Humans Adolescent male female Socioeconomic Factors risk factor Risk Factors socioeconomics high risk population opiate addiction psychedelic agent Article adult migration Patient Admission cohort analysis Emigration and Immigration addiction illicit drug statistical model social class Child