Demographic and Psychosocial Predictors of Early Attrition for Drug Use in U.S. Marines.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine demographic and psychosocial predictors of early attrition for drug use in a cohort of U.S. Marines and the resulting lost person-days.

METHOD: The study included data from 35,193 male Marines who completed a life history questionnaire during their first week of basic training. Associations between demographic and psychosocial variables with subsequent discharge for drug use were analyzed using logistic regression.

RESULTS: The strongest predictors of early attrition because of drug use were being a smoker, African American race, moving around often as a child, not having a high school diploma, joining the military to leave problems behind, and having a prior arrest record. The results also indicate that approximately 3.1 million person-days were lost in this cohort because of early discharge for drug abuse.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite effective policies that prohibit drug use, these findings suggest that a significant loss in manpower and training costs still occurs because of early attrition for drug use. Postenlistment interventions for those recruits at higher risk for drug abuse may help to reduce this attrition.