You can also check out the article here:http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-baby-boomers-get-high/
Even though the number of hospitalizations for drug-related admissions and illicit drug use has been on the rise, there is one age group which is often overlooked in this particular set of data. Research has shown that the drug habits of baby boomers, or individuals born between the years 1946-1964, persisted (Barry-Jester & Flowers, 2015). Previous research has found that many drink and some use marijuana, however very few partake in the usage of any other drugs (Barry-Jester & Flowers, 2015). The paper uses data published by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) to analyze what percentage of other drugs are being used by baby boomers. Overall, they found that baby boomers had a lower rate of drug usage overall when compared to younger individuals. Additionally, alcohol usage was so high, with a usage of 67% by baby boomers, that it had to be excluded from the data chart that the authors included in their article, since it could not fit!
Below, I analyzed the data in a variety of ways.
SAMDHA conducted a survey in 2012 to collect data on the drug usage of baby boomers. With this overview, we can see some information, such as all of the drugs that were answered on the survey, combined with all the age groups. We can see, for example, the minimal and maximal reported frequencies of hallucinogens.
boomersum <- summary(dataset)
boomersum## age n alcohol_use alcohol_frequency
## Length:17 Min. :2223 Min. : 3.90 Min. : 3.00
## Class :character 1st Qu.:2469 1st Qu.:40.10 1st Qu.:10.00
## Mode :character Median :2798 Median :64.60 Median :48.00
## Mean :3251 Mean :55.43 Mean :33.35
## 3rd Qu.:3058 3rd Qu.:77.50 3rd Qu.:52.00
## Max. :7391 Max. :84.20 Max. :52.00
## marijuana_use marijuana_frequency cocaine_use cocaine_frequency
## Min. : 1.10 Min. : 4.00 Min. :0.000 Length:17
## 1st Qu.: 8.70 1st Qu.:30.00 1st Qu.:0.500 Class :character
## Median :20.80 Median :52.00 Median :2.000 Mode :character
## Mean :18.92 Mean :42.94 Mean :2.176
## 3rd Qu.:28.40 3rd Qu.:52.00 3rd Qu.:4.000
## Max. :34.00 Max. :72.00 Max. :4.900
## crack_use crack_frequency heroin_use heroin_frequency
## Min. :0.0000 Length:17 Min. :0.0000 Length:17
## 1st Qu.:0.0000 Class :character 1st Qu.:0.1000 Class :character
## Median :0.4000 Mode :character Median :0.2000 Mode :character
## Mean :0.2941 Mean :0.3529
## 3rd Qu.:0.5000 3rd Qu.:0.6000
## Max. :0.6000 Max. :1.1000
## hallucinogen_use hallucinogen_frequency inhalant_use inhalant_frequency
## Min. :0.100 Min. : 2.000 Min. :0.000 Length:17
## 1st Qu.:0.600 1st Qu.: 3.000 1st Qu.:0.600 Class :character
## Median :3.200 Median : 3.000 Median :1.400 Mode :character
## Mean :3.394 Mean : 8.412 Mean :1.388
## 3rd Qu.:5.200 3rd Qu.: 4.000 3rd Qu.:2.000
## Max. :8.600 Max. :52.000 Max. :3.000
## pain_releiver_use pain_releiver_frequency oxycontin_use oxycontin_frequency
## Min. : 0.600 Min. : 7.00 Min. :0.0000 Length:17
## 1st Qu.: 3.900 1st Qu.:12.00 1st Qu.:0.4000 Class :character
## Median : 6.200 Median :12.00 Median :1.1000 Mode :character
## Mean : 6.271 Mean :14.71 Mean :0.9353
## 3rd Qu.: 9.000 3rd Qu.:15.00 3rd Qu.:1.4000
## Max. :10.000 Max. :36.00 Max. :1.7000
## tranquilizer_use tranquilizer_frequency stimulant_use stimulant_frequency
## Min. :0.200 Min. : 4.50 Min. :0.000 Min. : 2.00
## 1st Qu.:1.400 1st Qu.: 6.00 1st Qu.:0.600 1st Qu.: 7.00
## Median :3.500 Median :10.00 Median :1.800 Median : 10.00
## Mean :2.806 Mean :11.74 Mean :1.918 Mean : 31.15
## 3rd Qu.:4.200 3rd Qu.:11.00 3rd Qu.:3.000 3rd Qu.: 12.00
## Max. :5.400 Max. :52.00 Max. :4.100 Max. :364.00
## meth_use meth_frequency sedative_use sedative_frequency
## Min. :0.0000 Length:17 Min. :0.0000 Min. : 3.00
## 1st Qu.:0.2000 Class :character 1st Qu.:0.2000 1st Qu.: 6.50
## Median :0.4000 Mode :character Median :0.3000 Median : 10.00
## Mean :0.3824 Mean :0.2824 Mean : 19.38
## 3rd Qu.:0.6000 3rd Qu.:0.4000 3rd Qu.: 17.50
## Max. :0.9000 Max. :0.5000 Max. :104.00Here we see the top 5 responses in this survey: alcohol, marijuana, pain reliever, tranquilizer, and cocaine use, all of which are sorted by age in ascending order. It is clear, through this table, that alcohol is the most used drug across all ages, peaking between ages 22-23 with 84.2% of adults using it. There also seems to be a general trend, similar to that of a bell curve on a graph, with drug habits. With adolescents there is very little usage, increasing through teenage years, with maximal drug usage between the ages of 20-30. Afterwards, there is a decline in drug habits, however, alcohol usage still remains at a fairly high percentage even at 65+ years old.
top5_data <- dataset %>%
select(age, "alcohol_use", "marijuana_use", "pain_releiver_use", "tranquilizer_use","cocaine_use")
df <- top5_data %>%
rename(Alcohol = "alcohol_use",Marijuana = "marijuana_use",PainRelievers="pain_releiver_use",Tranquilizers = "tranquilizer_use",Cocaine = "cocaine_use" )
dfBecause this data is a bit outdated, having been published in 2012, it may not be an accurate reflection of current drug habits. I would also like to know additional information, for example how often these drugs are generally used on average across these different age groups. It would be interesting to see a generation followed over time on drug habits, this way we can compare different generations across their lifetime and even take a look into the different factors that may affect drug usage and drug habits. This type of information can be extremely helpful in determining the kind of resources we need, and what kind of action must take place, to reduce overdoses.