Study title

The Epidemiological Survey on Addiction (ESA) is a population-representative study conducted regularly since 1980 to record the use of psychoactive substances and substance-related problems in the German general population. The sample (N=9,046) of German-speaking persons aged 18 to 64 years from private households was drawn disproportionately to the distribution of birth cohorts in a two-stage selection procedure. In the first step, 217 municipalities within Germany were randomly selected. In a second step, addresses were drawn from population registers using systematic random selection. The surveys were conducted by a mix of methods using written and internet-based questionnaires as well as telephone interviews. To compensate for disproportionate selection probabilities, poststratification weights were determined to align the data with the distribution of the population of the Federal Republic of Germany. Data collection took place between May and September 2021 and was conducted by infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft GmbH. The response rate was 35%.The survey covered 30-day, 12-month and lifetime prevalence of use of tobacco (tobacco products as well as shisha, heat-not-burn products and e-cigarettes), alcohol, illicit drugs and medicines. For conventional tobacco products, heat-not-burn products, e-cigarettes, alcohol, selected illicit drugs (cannabis, cocaine, and amphetamines), and medications (painkillers, sleeping pills and sedatives, stimulants, appetite suppressants, antidepressants, neuroleptics, anabolic steroids), additional screening instruments were collected to detect problematic use (indication of dependence) for the period of the last twelve months. The following screening instruments were used: Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) for conventional tobacco products and heat-not-burn products; Pennstate Electronic Dependence Index (PS-ECDI) for e-cigarettes; Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) for alcohol;...