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In
1999, CICAD entered a cooperative agreement with Johns
Hopkins University to carry out drug abuse research in
the seven member
states. The
research, funded by the U.S.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), examines drug
and alcohol involvement among high-school students (aged 12-17) in Costa
Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
The project builds on the existing research infrastructure
in the region, formed with CICAD help in 1991 to conduct
epidemiologic surveillance of drug use in the Central
American region. Over a five-year period, research teams
in the Ministries of Health and National Drug Commissions
conducted surveys on drug use in the capital cities of
their countries, in an effort to determine if use was
increasing, decreasing or remaining relatively constant.
The Central American program has since expanded to
many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean,
who are using a unified set of questionnaires called the Inter-American
Uniform Drug Use Data System (SIDUC).
Expanded
Epidemiological Surveillance and Prevention Efforts
The Johns Hopkins research project, directed by Dr. James
Anthony, (NIDA grant # 1R01DA10502-01A1) uses a questionnaire called PACARDO to ask not
only how many high-school students use drugs, which drugs,
and how often, but importantly, seeks answers about
factors that put a young person at risk for drug-taking.
The findings
will provide a point of
departure for improving strategies to prevent and treat
drug abuse among the region’s youth.
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