IU School of Public Health-Bloomington establishes Institute for Research on Addictive Behavior

The IU School of Public Health has established a new institute, The Institute for Research on Addictive Behavior (IRAB). IRAB’s mission is to advance basic and translational research on addictive behavior to improve public health. The goal is to create an infrastructure that nurtures scientists across disciplines to work as teams to optimize the quality and relevance of research on addictive behavior. Access to datasets through IRAB will enable a broad range of secondary analyses. 

The institute’s website contains up to date information about IRAB’s data. The following datasets are presently available and ready to be utilized under a data use agreement:

• Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) use by Indiana Children and Adolescents (depending on year, n=50,000 to 200,000), data available from 1993 through 2013 (cross-sectional only).
• Indiana College Substance Use Survey (n=5,000, approximately), data available from 2009 through 2013 (cross-sectional only).
• Multi-domain Health Survey of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation students (n=1,200).  Data are from 2009 (cross-sectional only).

More detailed information is available for each dataset at irab.indiana.edu/data.php.

Additional datasets, including a multi-level and an IU Public Health Survey of student databases, are in process and will be announced through the IRAB list (IRAB – L) as soon as they are available. If you are interested in joining the IRAB list, visit irab.indiana.edu and click “join now.” As a list member, you will receive updates on available data, professional development opportunities, and relevant news related to addictive behavior.

If you have additional questions, please contact the IRAB’s data manager, Dr. Jon Agley, at jagley@indiana.edu.