U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of people who started using heroin in the past year — SU‑17 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), SAMHSA

Baseline: 0.03 percent of persons aged 12 years and over reported heroin use initiation in the past 12 months in 2017

Target: 0.03 percent

Numerator
Number of persons aged 12 years and over reporting heroin use initiation in the past 12 months.
Denominator
Number of persons aged 12 years and over.
Target-setting method
Maintain the baseline
Target-setting method justification
This method was used because the trend was moving away from the desired direction. Maintaining the baseline is the desired target because the aspiration was to maintain baseline and prevent any increase.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

Numerator:
HE02 [IF HE01 = 1 OR HEREF = 1] How old were you the first time you used heroin?

AGE: [RANGE: 1 - 110]

HE03b [IF AGE1STHR = CURNTAGE - 1 AND DATE OF INTERVIEW

  1. CURRENT YEAR - 2
  2. CURRENT YEAR - 1
  3. DK/REF
In what month in [CURRENT YEAR] did you first use heroin?
  1. January
  2. February
  3. March
  4. April
  5. May
  6. June
  7. July
  8. August
  9. September
  10. October
  11. November
  12. December
  13. DK/REF

Methodology notes

Past year initiates for a specific substance include those who used that substance (misused in the case of prescription psychotherapeutics) for the first time in the past year.