Table 6 examines the possibility that given the sex-age interactions presented in Table 5 above, that younger age groups may no longer have sex differences in risk of incident use (given that the differences were particularly marked among older age groups). Two columns are shown for each drug type: one for the entire sample, and one for those aged 18–29 y, each being the ratio of cumulative incidence estimates according to sex (in any given year of life), derived from discrete-time survival models. As can be seen, for the overall sex association, there was an almost universal association across countries and drug types, whereby women were less likely than men in any given year of life to initiate drug use of all kinds. Among those aged 18–29 y, however, less consistent sex effects were found. In the European countries, there was no effect of sex on the likelihood of initiating alcohol use at any given age (with the exception of Italy and Ukraine, where females were still slightly less likely). This pattern was also found for cannabis and to a
