Alireza Amirabadizadeh1, Hossein Nezami2, Michael G Vaughn3, Samaneh Nakhaee1,4, Omid Mehrpour1. 1. a Medical Toxicology and Drug Abuse Research Center (MTDRC) , Birjand University of Medical Sciences , Moallem Avenue , Birjand , Iran. 2. b Department of Basic Sciences , Faculty of Medicine, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences , Gonabad , Iran. 3. c School of Social Work , Saint Louis University , St. Louis , Missouri , USA. 4. d Cardiovascular Diseases Research Center , Birjand University of Medical Sciences , Birjand , Iran.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Substance abuse exacts considerable social and health care burdens throughout the world. The aim of this study was to create a prediction model to better identify risk factors for drug use. DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in South Khorasan Province, Iran. Of the total of 678 eligible subjects, 70% (n: 474) were randomly selected to provide a training set for constructing decision tree and multiple logistic regression (MLR) models. The remaining 30% (n: 204) were employed in a holdout sample to test the performance of the decision tree and MLR models. Predictive performance of different models was analyzed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve using the testing set. Independent variables were selected from demographic characteristics and history of drug use. RESULTS: For the decision tree model, the sensitivity and specificity for identifying people at risk for drug abuse were 66% and 75%, respectively, while the MLR model was somewhat less effective at 60% and 73%. Key independent variables in the analyses included first substance experience, age at first drug use, age, place of residence, history of cigarette use, and occupational and marital status. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: While study findings are exploratory and lack generalizability they do suggest that the decision tree model holds promise as an effective classification approach for identifying risk factors for drug use. Convergent with prior research in Western contexts is that age of drug use initiation was a critical factor predicting a substance use disorder.
INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Substance abuse exacts considerable social and health care burdens throughout the world. The aim of this study was to create a prediction model to better identify risk factors for drug use. DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in South Khorasan Province, Iran. Of the total of 678 eligible subjects, 70% (n: 474) were randomly selected to provide a training set for constructing decision tree and multiple logistic regression (MLR) models. The remaining 30% (n: 204) were employed in a holdout sample to test the performance of the decision tree and MLR models. Predictive performance of different models was analyzed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve using the testing set. Independent variables were selected from demographic characteristics and history of drug use. RESULTS: For the decision tree model, the sensitivity and specificity for identifying people at risk for drug abuse were 66% and 75%, respectively, while the MLR model was somewhat less effective at 60% and 73%. Key independent variables in the analyses included first substance experience, age at first drug use, age, place of residence, history of cigarette use, and occupational and marital status. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: While study findings are exploratory and lack generalizability they do suggest that the decision tree model holds promise as an effective classification approach for identifying risk factors for drug use. Convergent with prior research in Western contexts is that age of drug use initiation was a critical factor predicting a substance use disorder.
Entities:
Keywords:
Decision tree; addiction; drug abuse; substance use