Add Health Substance Use and Adult CVD Risk Analysis

A U.S. longitudinal study of 4,128 participants from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) examines links between adolescent substance use and adult cardiovascular disease risk. The dataset includes self-reported measures of binge drinking, marijuana use, and cigarette smoking from Wave I, analyzed against 30-year Framingham CVD risk scores from Wave IV. The analysis was conducted by Prince Nii Ossah Addo and shared on figshare in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling dose-response relationships between number of substances used and CVD risk based on the total substance count (0-3).
• Comparing CVD risk odds for exclusive vs. combined substance use patterns (e.g., smoking only vs. smoking + binge drinking).
• Validating the Framingham CVD risk score's application in longitudinal studies of adolescent cohorts.
• Investigating covariate-adjusted associations between specific self-reported substance use measures and binary high/low CVD risk categories.

Strengths

• Dataset is derived from the nationally representative Add Health study, which uses a multistage sampling design.
• Analysis includes a final sample of 4,128 participants with an average baseline age of 15 years.
• Provides specific odds ratios with confidence intervals (e.g., 2.68 times higher odds for three substances).
• Substance use is characterized in two structured ways: mutually exclusive patterns and a total count.

Limitations

• The provided file is a 17.6 KB DOCX document, suggesting the dataset itself is not directly available or is a summary table.
• Column-level documentation and raw sample data are unavailable, limiting assessment of data structure.
• Row count for the underlying analytical dataset is unknown.

Provenance

Source

Secondary analysis of Waves I and IV from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health).

Collection Method

Survey analysis accounting for multistage sampling design, using multiple logistic regression on self-reported substance use and Framingham CVD risk scores.

Time Range

Longitudinal, covering from adolescence (Wave I) to adulthood (Wave IV). Specific years not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-15 05:46:53.

Geography

United States.