Tuesday, July 29, 2008
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - One out of every five adult San Diegans has either been affected themselves or had an immediate family member affected by an addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, smoking, or by an eating disorder. That is the stark finding of a survey released today by the San Diego Institute for Policy Research (SDI).
More than half of those who had a friend or family member suffering addiction said that it had a very or extreme impact. Those experiencing addiction reported that they missed on average 47 days of work during the past year. Eight percent said they were unable to do any work. This translates into more than 3.6 million lost days of work due to the impacts of addiction and eating disorders.
Steve Francis, Chairman of the San Diego Institute for Policy Research noted, “Addiction in its various forms continues to have a devastating impact on the region. It looms as one of the most important public health challenges the region faces.”
The survey also found that there are perceived gaps in the region’s support and treatment network. While those participating in existing support and treatment networks found them to be very effective, there is clearly a demand for additional services and support with 53% of addicts and 36% of close associates of addicts reporting that they felt they did not have adequate access to such services.
There is interest, especially among friends and families, for a way to get from the internet more information about addiction and virtual space where those fighting against addiction and their loved ones can communicate with others. A third of those experiencing addiction and nearly 60% of family members and friends of those fighting addiction expressed an interest in participating in on-line social networks to connect with others struggling with addiction.
Francis added, “These results also show that real desire among those affected by addiction to reach out and connect with others. More should be done to meet this need and help those recovering and their family and friends.” The San Diego Institute for Policy Research is doing major policy work in the field of addiction and recovery and plans to do more polling in this area.
Full results of the survey can be acquired by contacting the National University System Institute for Policy Research.
About the Survey
The research was conducted from November 4-10, 2007 and included 1,011 randomly selected adult respondents within the County of San Diego. This survey was conducted by Competitive Edge Research & Communication (CERC) in conjunction with the San Diego Institute for Policy Research, and was provided in English and Spanish. The duration of the average interview was 13 minutes. The random digit dial sample was provided by Scientific Telephone Samples of Foothill Ranch, CA. After collecting the data, results were weighted on the voter registration, gender, area and age variables to CERC’s estimates of the overall San Diego City population gathered from the US Census and the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.
According to statistical theory, the confidence level associated with a sample of this type is such that, with a question where the respondents answer 50% "yes" and 50% "no," 95% of the time the results are within plus or minus ±3.1% of the true value in the county, where true value refers to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every possible qualified respondent. The degree of error is reduced when responses have larger (e.g. 60%-40%, 70%-30%) percentage differences. Conversely, the margin of error increases when a subset of the entire 1,011 responses is analyzed. In addition to error introduced by sampling variability, there are many other possible sources of bias such as how a question is worded, the question sequence, or individual interviewer techniques.
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