PACARDO: Data on Drug Use and Behavior in School-Aged Children and Teenagers in Panama, Central America, and the Dominican Republic, 1999-2000

The PACARDO study, concatenated to combine Panamá (PA), Centroamérica (CA), and República Dominicana (RDO), was a multi-national collaborative epidemiological research study whose primary objective was to record and describe self-reported drug use and behavior patterns among school-aged youths in Latin America. During 1999-2000, anonymous self-administered questionnaires on drug involvement and related behaviors were administered to a cross-sectional, nationally representative sample that included a total of 12,797 students in the following seven countries: Costa Rica (n = 1,702), the Dominican Republic (n = 2,023), El Salvador (n = 1,628), Guatemala (n = 2,530), Honduras (n = 1,752), Nicaragua (n = 1,419), and Panama (n = 1,743). Estimates for exposure opportunity and actual use of alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, marijuana, cocaine (crack / cocoa paste), amphetamines and methamphetamines, tranquilizers, ecstasy, and heroin were assessed via responses about questions on age of first chance to try each drug, and first use.