Associations between fentanyl usage and social media use among U.S. teens

The abuse of fentanyl needs attention as this substance contributes greatly to drug overdose fatalities in the U.S., especially among adolescents. Our study was conducted to help develop effective intervention strategies to decrease adolescent fentanyl abuse by looking into the effects of social media usage and other factors on fentanyl exposure among teens in the U.S. We hypothesized that social media usage would have a positive association with socioeconomic factors and fentanyl abuse in teens in the U.S. The data utilized in this study was from a cross-sectional survey, the Monitoring the Future (MTF) dataset, which focused on 8th and 10th grade American youth. This study observed variables of sex, race, academic disciplinary history, frequency of substance usage, amount of social media usage, and relationship with parents. Frequency tabulation, chi-square test, and logistic regression were conducted for the evaluation of a trend between teenage social media and fentanyl usage, considering potential confounding factors. The results showed that there is a higher frequency of fentanyl use when students have had suspension histories, use marijuana, or use alcohol. This information can be used to design interventions that focus specifically on students who have such histories. Although not statistically significant, the results of logistic regression combined with frequency graphs show a notable trend that the amount of time teenagers spend on social media in daily life is positively correlated with fentanyl usage frequency.