Crack Cocaine and Health Service Use

The primary goal of this National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded project was to produce a natural history of crack cocaine use which also described health service utilization. The main analytic goals of this project were to determine the factors that predicted both perceived health care needs and the use of health services by people who use crack.

Using targeted sampling methods, 420 crack users in the Dayton/Montgomery County, Ohio, community were assessed and followed-up at six-month intervals over an eight year period. Quantitative and qualitative were used to obtain information on crack users' perceived needs for drug abuse treatment and other health care services as well as their actual use of these services. The targeted sampling methodology assured representation of crack users with respect to gender, ethnicity, and length of crack use.

Field operations began in June 1996 and closed in October 2005. The grant ended in February 2008.

Staff Contact Information

Publications

  • Carlson, R.G., Falck, R.S., Siegal, H.A. (2000). Crack-cocaine injection in the heartland: An ethnographic perspective. Medical Anthropology, 18(4):305-323.
  • Carlson, R.G., Siegal, H.A. (1991). The crack life: An ethnographic overview of crack use and sexual behavior among African Americans in a Midwest metropolitan city. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 23(1):11-20. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G. (2008) Among long-term crack smokers, who avoids and who succumbs to cocaine addiction? (in Press) Drug and Alcohol Dependence. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G. (2007). Crack cocaine trajectories among users in a midwestern American city. Addiction, 102(9):1421-1431. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G., Eddy, M., Siegal, H.A. (2002). The prevalence and correlates of depressive symptomatology among a community sample of crack-cocaine smokers. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 34(3):281-288. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G., Siegal, H.A. (2001). The epidemiology of physical attack and rape among crack-using women. Violence and Victims, 16(1):79-89. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G., Siegal, H.A. (2000). Crack-cocaine use and health status as defined by the SF-36. Addictive Behaviors, 25(4):579-584. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Siegal, H.A., Carlson, R.G. (2004). The prevalence of psychiatric disorder among a community sample of crack-cocaine users: An exploratory study with practical implications. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 192(7):503-507. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Siegal, H.A., Carlson, R.G. (2003). Current physical health problems and their predictors among a community sample of crack-cocaine smokers in Ohio. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 35(4):471-478. [Abstract]
  • Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Siegal, H.A., Carlson, R.G. (2000). Longitudinal application of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-form Health Survey with not-in-treatment crack-cocaine users. Medical Care, 38(9):902-910. [Abstract]
  • Siegal, H.A., Falck, R.S., Carlson, R.G., Wang, J., Rahman, A.M. (1998). Health services research among crack-cocaine users: A case study from the Midwest. American Behavioral Scientist, 41(8):1063-1078.
  • Siegal, H.A., Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G. & Massimino, K.P. (2006). Emergency department utilization by crack-cocaine smokers in Dayton, Ohio. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 32(1):55-68.[Abstract]
  • Siegal, H.A., Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G. (2002). Predictors of drug abuse treatment entry among crack-cocaine smokers. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 68(2):159-166. [Abstract]
  • Siegal, H.A., Falck, R.S., Wang, J., Carlson, R.G. (2000). Crack-cocaine users as victims of physical attack. Journal of the National Medical Association, 92(2):76-82. [Abstract]
  • Wang, J., Siegal, H.A., Falck, R.S., Carlson, R.G. (2001). Factorial structure of Rosenberg's self-esteem scale among crack-cocaine drug users. Structural Equation Modeling, 8(2):275-286. [Abstract]