Running away experience and psychoactive substance use among adolescents in Taiwan: multi-city street outreach survey

Table 3 Age at onset of substance use compared with age at which the subject first ran away among the adolescents of the 2004--2006 street outreach programme in Taiwan

Substance	N	Younger	Same Age	Older	p value for
		n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	χ ² test^a
Alcohol	937	399 (42.6)	173 (18.5)	365 (38.9)	0.2187
Tobacco	813	372 (45.8)	156 (19.2)	285 (35.1)	0.0007
Betel nut	198	66 (33.3)	37 (18.7)	95 (48.0)	0.0223
Any illegal drug/inhalant	211	40 (19.0)	31 (15.7)	140 (66.3)	<0.0001
Ecstasy	139	25 (18.0)	21 (15.1)	93 (66.9)	<0.0001
Ketamine	75	13 (17.3)	9 (12.0)	53 (70.7)	<0.0001
Marijuana	33	5 (15.2)	7 (21.2)	21 (63.6)	0.0017
Methamphetamine	25	5 (20.0)	2 (8.0)	18 (72.0)	0.0067
Flunitrazepam	26	6 (23.1)	3 (11.5)	17 (65.4)	0.0218
Glue	26	2 (7.7)	8 (30.8)	16 (61.5)	0.0010

^aThe proportions of those with a younger or older age at onset for substance use were tested against the expected proportions of 50% under the null hypothesis of no ordering between running away and substance use.

ISSN: 1471-2458