ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addictions
Global burden and health inequalities of drug use disorders in adolescents and young adults from 1992 to 2021
Provisionally accepted
- 1Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
- 2Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China
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Background: Drug use disorders (DUDs) are serious medical issues worldwide, especially in adolescents and young adults. This study aims to assess the global pattern and trends in disease burden due to DUDs among adolescents and young adults and its health inequalities from 1990 to 2021. Methods: We downloaded data on the prevalence and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to DUDs among people aged 15 to 39 years from the Global Burden of Disease 2021. Age-period-cohort (APC) model was used to assess the time trend of disease burden. The slope index and the concentration index were calculated to assess cross-national health inequalities. Results: There were approximately 40.2 (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 34.7 to 47.7) million cases of DUDs among adolescents and young adults worldwide. The total burden of DUDs in adolescents and young adults measured in DALYs was 10.2 (95% UI: 8.2 to 12.3) million in 2021, an increase of 38.2% from 1992. In the APC model, the age effect showed that people aged 35 to 39 were at the lowest risk, and the highest risk existed in people aged 25 to 29 years; period effects showed that there was a decline first and then a rising risk of prevalence for both sexes; birth effects presented a rising first and then a declining risk of prevalence in successive birth cohorts. The slope index increased from 195.9 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 166.1 to 225.7) in 1992 to 228.7 (95% CI: 190.4 to 267) in 2021. The concentration index also increased from 0.24 (95% CI: 0.19 to 0.29) in 1992 to 0.5 (95% CI: 0.36 to 0.64) in 2021. Conclusion: Disease burdens due to DUDs among adolescents and young adults suggest that more measures should be taken to limit drug abuse. We should pay attention to body health and substance use in adolescents and young adults.
Keywords: Global burden of disease, drug use disorders, Prevalence, Disability-adjusted life year, health inequality
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bao, Sun, Zhang, Zhao, Feng and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenkai Jiang, 434605105@qq.com
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