ANN ARBOR—A new University of Michigan project that will study substance abuse among Chilean teens during a five-year period could provide insights into the increasing tobacco, alcohol and drug use in Latin America.

The study?led by Jorge Delva, associate professor in the U-M School of Social Work?builds on the research of another U-M and University of Chile collaborative project that is analyzing the behavioral and developmental effects of preventing iron deficiency anemia in infancy. Betsy Lozoff, professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, and Marcela Castillo, assistant professor at the Institute on Nutrition and Food Technology at the University of Chile, have spearheaded the latter project.

This interdisciplinary effort will result in a 15-year perspective study that will not only lend insight into Latin America, but also should be applicable to further the understanding of substance use among all youths in the United States, the researchers said.

“The specific findings will apply to Latin America, but substance abuse is a universal problem,” Delva said. “We’re hoping the findings will offer important drug prevention information related to such areas as mental health, parenting, and neighborhoods.”

The sample will include more than 1,200 Chilean adolescents and their families, who have been followed longitudinally since infancy in Lozoff’s project.

“Not only is the sample size large, but few studies on adolescent substance use have such in-depth information on children and their families beginning in infancy,” Lozoff said. “Among a number of research questions, we are particularly interested in the relation of early iron deficiency on late substance use, because iron deficiency affects the brain chemicals that are involved in drug abuse.”

During the five-year study, children will be 12- to 16-years-old, an age group when initiation of substance use, especially alcohol and tobacco, is exceptionally high in Chile. “We propose to identify developmental pathways of substance use, abuse and dependence in early to late adolescence,” said Delva, a native of Chile.

At least two comprehensive assessments of all adolescent-mother dyads will be conducted about two years apart. U-M researchers are working with the University of Chile Institute on Nutrition and Food Technology, which will collect data from the families.

Delva’s study is a $2.8 million project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Robert Zucker, director of the U-M Addiction Research Center, is also a co-investigator in this project.

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