Exploring Living Arrangements as a Predictor of Canadians’ Illicit Drug Use: Quantitative Findings From the Canadian Community Health Survey

Abstract

Objectives: About four percent of Canadians used illegal drugs in 2019, but it remains unknown whether their living arrangements are a relevant factor.Methods: We use the public version of the 2015–2016 Canadian Community Health Survey Annual Component. The binary logit model and complementary log-log model are applied to investigate to what extent living arrangements predict Canadians’ recent illicit drug use.Results: Living alone is significantly associated with Canadians’ illicit drug use. For young and older Canadians, those living with spouses/partners, children, or both are less likely to use illicit drugs than their solo-living counterparts. Middle-aged Canadians who lived with spouses/partners only or with children have significantly lower likelihoods of using illicit drugs compared to those living alone. Additionally, differences between men and women have been found. Spouses/partners and children play more positive roles for young and middle-aged women than for men.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that living with core families is a type of collectivity that may have positive effects on Canadians’ health behaviours compared to those living alone, who, therefore, need more attention from health officials.