High school seniors who play contact sports are about 50% more likely to abuse prescription stimulants in the decade after graduation compared to those who don’t play those sports, a new study shows.
Overall, 12th graders who participate in sports — both contact and non-contact — are more likely than non-athletes to abuse prescription stimulants in young adulthood, said lead author Philip Veliz, research associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing.
In contrast, seniors who participate in non-contact sports are less likely to abuse prescription opioids over the next decade, although they are more likely to abuse stimulants than non-athletes.
This is the first known national study to assess how participation in high school sports is associated with prescription drug abuse from ages 17-18 to ages 27-28. Researchers collected data from 4,772 12th graders between 2006-2017 from the Monitoring the Future study and followed them for a decade.
Veliz and colleagues looked at high-contact (soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse, wrestling), semi-contact (baseball, basketball, field hockey, soccer) and non-contact sports (cross country, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, weightlifting).
“Prescription opioid abuse was higher for respondents who participated in contact sports in 12th grade. However, participation in this type of sport was not associated with initiation of this type of drug use in young adulthood,” says Veliz.
Although surprising, he says, it should be noted that prescription opioid abuse declined among adolescents and young adults during the study period because opioids became less available and there was greater awareness of the risks of opioid abuse during this period.
Prescription drug abuse of both opioids and stimulants has declined significantly among youth since 2010, Veliz says.
“However, this study found that some types of former high school athletes are at greater risk of abusing these substances and starting them in early adulthood (between the ages of 19 and 21),” he says.
Veliz was surprised that youth in non-contact sports were more likely to start abusing stimulants during young adulthood than those who did not play a non-contact sport. Non-contact sports may provide a culture of self-control or an aversion to physical injury, but that doesn’t mean participants don’t value competitiveness, he says.
Studies suggest that participants in non-contact sports have better academic results and may see sports as a resume builder in the admissions process. In addition, young adults often abuse stimulants because they mistakenly believe that this increases academic performance, so stimulants may appeal to this subgroup, Veliz says.
“The findings reinforce screening during adolescence, when nearly one in three high school students engage in prescription drug abuse,” said senior author Sean Esteban McCabe, director of DASH, Center for the Study of Drug, Alcohol, Smoking, and Health.
“Increased prescription stimulant abuse after high school warrants ongoing surveillance in young adulthood, particularly among athletes.”
The study appears in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Veliz says his next set of studies will focus on the relationship between sports participation and stimulant abuse among youth being treated for ADHD.
