Psychoactive substance use among secondary school students in a semi-urban setting in Nigeria: Prevalence, pattern and sociodemographic correlates (original) (raw)
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African Journal of Psychiatry, 2010
Objective: Substance use continues to be major risk behaviour among youth, with consequent physical and /or mental health complications. The current study aimed to establish the prevalence and associated factors of substance use among selected secondary school students in Lagos. Method: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive study among selected secondary school students in Lagos. Permission was obtained from appropriate school authorities; as well as consent from each participant. The WHO Students' Drug Use Questionnaire which had been previously validated in the country was used to obtain the drug use information from the subjects. Analysis of the data was conducted using Epi-info version 5. Results: A total of 402 students were studied-of whom 43.5% (n=175) were males and 56.5% (n=227) females. The mean age was 15.9 years. 83.1% (n=334) lived with their parents, 7.6% (n=31) with their relatives and 7.2% (n=29) with friends. The commonest substances used by the subjects were caffeine (kolanut and coffee), mild analgesics (paracetamol and aspirin) and the antimalarials, most especially chloroquine with lifetime use prevalence rates of 85.7%, 73.8% and 65.7% respectively. Generally, the prevalence rates for lifetime use of the substances varied from 3.8% (n=14) for Heroin and Cocaine to 85.7% (n=344) for psychostimulants; and for current use varying from 2% (n=8)to 56.5% (n= 213). For the so called "gateway drugs": alcohol and tobacco, their lifetime use prevalence rates were 9.2% (n=34) and 5.2% (n=19) while the lifetime use prevalence rate for cannabis was 4.4% (n=16). In terms of gender, the prevalence rates for males were generally higher than for their female counterparts except for antibiotics, analgesics, heroin and cocaine. Reasons for using substances included relief from stress, 43.5% (n=175), self medication to treat illness, 23.8% (n=96), and to stay awake at night to study, 14.9% (n=60). Conclusion: Substance use was found to be prevalent among students in this study involving over-the-counter and socially acceptable substances as well as the abuse of illicit substances. It is advocated that there is a need to review existing health educational programmes.
Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International, 2021
Psychoactive substance use among Secondary School Students has become an increasing public health problem in many countries. This study assessed the prevalence and patterns of psychoactive substance use among senior secondary school students of community secondary school, Umuna. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study in which a sample size of 231 students was selected using simple random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire and data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and presented using tables. The study revealed that alcohol and tobacco were the most commonly abused substance. It also revealed that more than half (51.1%) of the respondents use substance on a daily basis and smoking and sniffing were the most common patterns used. Factors influencing substance use included; peer group pressure and family background. There is a psychoactive substance. It was recommended that Government should ensure the enforc...
Asian J. Pharm. Res., 2017
The abuse of chemicals particularly psychoactive substances has been on the increase amongst the youth populace to the extent of becoming a front burner and top category public health concern in many developing nations of Africa, hence the aim of this study to evaluate the use of psychoactive substance and its risk factors among secondary school students in Port Harcourt LGA of Rivers State, so as to establish the prevalence rate of the use of the substances among the student populace. The research is a prospective study of 450 students of age between 11-21 years, chosen randomly in secondary schools of Rivers State. A pre-coded structured and self-administered substance use questionnaire was employed in the survey with the contents ascertained by experts. The results showed that a range of between 68%-83% of the respondents claimed knowledge of the use of substance. 21.7% claimed part use of substance while 52.1% and 30.5% claimed ever and current use respectively. The commonly used substances were cannabis-16.7%, tobacco-14.3%, alcohol-8.3%, and analgesics-0 46.7%. The overall prevalence among the respondents was 30%. Generally, the study revealed that the male drug users were significantly higher than the female drug users and also indicated that majority of the substance users were influenced by psychological factors. It is suggested that there is need to develop a viable substance abuse preventive programme in our schools. This study is recommended as a material for stakeholders of education for strategic health preventive campaigns.
BMC Pediatrics, 2016
Background: Psycho-active substance use among adolescents is a national and global problem and its attendant effects on adolescents cannot be overemphasized. The objectives of this study are to determine the prevalence and pattern of psychoactive substance use among adolescents; the substances involved and the extent of the problem in this locale. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that assesses the pattern of psychoactive substance use among secondary school adolescents in Enugu, south East, Nigeria. The study was carried out among adolescents attending six secondary boarding schools in Enugu metropolis of Enugu State of Nigeria. The WHO Student Drug Use Questionnaire was adapted for this study. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences program (SPSS), version 17. Chi-square and multivariate regression were used as a test of significance for qualitative variables. A p-value less than 0.05 were accepted as significant for each statistical test. Results: Out of 900, a total of 896 respondents, comprising 400 and 82 boys (482) (53.8 %) and 400 and 14 girls (414) (46.2 %) completed the questionnaires. This gave a response rate of 99.6 %. The study revealed that the prevalence of current use for psychoactive substances ranges from 0.4 to 34.9 % while that for life use ranges from 0.8 to 63.5 %. The least being cannabis and the most being kola nuts. Kola nut is the most widely used psychoactive substance both for current use, past year use and the respondents' life time use. It shows a lifetime prevalence of 63.5 % and a current use prevalence of 34.9 %. More than half of the users of each of the psychoactive substances take it occasionally, using them on 1-5 days in a month. On the other hand, almost one-quarter of the users of each of the substances take it on 20 or more days in a month. Conclusion: The study revealed that the prevalence of current use for psychoactive substances ranges from 0.4 to 34.9 % while that for life use ranges from 0.8 to 63.5 %. The least being cannabis and the most being kola nuts.
Data on socio-demographic correlates of some psychoactive substance consumption were collected from a sample of 860 senior secondary school adolescents in Enugu, Nigeria, using a modified WHO Student drug use questionnaire. By means of frequency and percentages of responses to items on the questionnaire, results showed that 33.7% of the respondents were substance abusers. Alcohol was most commonly abused (31.6%) while cannabis was the least (4.1%). Age of initiation of substance use was lower than some reports from other centres. Apart from alcohol, there was statistically significant difference between the proportion that abused the different substances within the age groups (p=0.001). Males consumed most psychoactive substances more frequently than the females. Cigarette and cannabis were the exclusive preserve of the males. Seventy-five percent of the students were involved in multiple substance abuse. The older students were more involved in multiple abuses compared to the younger ones. The highest prevalence for daily substance use was found among those who used cigarette and coffee. Conclusion There is high involvement of adolescent students in substance abuse with a tendecy to early initiation. Since early substance use among adolescents impacts on the health, leads to risky sexual behaviour and other injurious activities, there is need for parents, school authorities and government to take pay serious attention to this problem in our environment. We advocate regular counseling in schools so as to sustain the awareness of the consequencies of substance abuse among adolescents.
Psychoactive Substance Use among Nigerian Secondary School Students: A Review of Current Literature
Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2020
Substance use is a global health issue that may lead to engagement in other risky behaviours, addiction, accidents and non-communicable diseases. In Nigeria, this risky behaviour is becoming an emerging trend among secondary school students. This review was thus carried out to gain an overview of the prevalence and risk factors of substance use among secondary school students in Nigeria. A literature search of articles in Scopus, PubMed and other online databases was conducted for articles published between 2009 to 2019. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Overall, psychoactive substance ranged from 21% to 87%. Alcohol consumption was the highest, while the use of tobacco, cannabis, and cocaine was low. The mean age at initiation ranged from 11 to 15 years. Male gender, peer influence, parental factors, individual factors and knowledge on the dangers of psychoactive substance use were common factors associated with substance use among Nigerian secondary school students. Scho...
2020
Background: The use and abuse of psychoactive substances among adolescents pose serious health problems in society. It is crucial to ascertain the factors predisposing adolescents to this in order to enable action by stakeholders. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and factors associated with psychoactive substance use among in-school adolescents in Zaria Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in nine secondary schools selected by balloting with a sample size of 639 students. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographics and lifetime/current use of psychoactive substances. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and logistic regression at P=0.05. Results: The mean age of respondents was 15.98±1.52 years, 51% were male, and 54.6% were aged 14-16 years. The lifetime and current prevalence of psychoactive substances...
Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology at Academic Journals, 2020
This research investigates psychoactive substance abuse that causes significant health problems in its various chemical effects. It also determines the patterns of its use and level of risk of harm assessment to humans. Harmful determination is dependent upon patterns used in psychoactive substance and its associated level of risk among high school students in Afar region, Ethiopia. The study described a survey of 400 high school students in Afar region, with the adoption of Multistage sampling technique on student's selection. Data collected from Jan-Feb/2017 using an instrument called Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), showed 400 students whose responses were 100% effective. Among the study participants, majority of them 231 (60.5%) were males. The result of the study revealed a dependent use pattern with 36.4% for Khat, 14.1% for tobacco products and 4.7% for alcohol beverages, which indicated high risk of problems related to psychoactive substances used requires more intensive treatment. The result also indicated that there is 31.4% harmful used pattern for alcohol beverages followed by khat (13.1%) and tobacco products (9.4%) which was associated with moderate risk of harm from their addiction. The result of independent t-test showed that there was a significant mean difference in alcoholic beverages abuse between male and female students, while no significant mean difference was observed in abuse of khat and tobacco products between male and female students. Relatively, ANOVA result revealed that religion of the respondents had a significant effect on abuse of alcoholic beverages, while no significant mean differences were observed in abusing psychoactive substance like tobacco products and khat across participants upon religion. Generally, the present study revealed a greater percentage of students whose daily dosage of harmful psychoactive substances instigated high and moderate risks. The outcome of this study is there is an urgent need for Government intervention to curtail the menace of harmful psychoactive substances and many other toxicants circulating in the society which are detrimental to health, social, financial, legal and peaceful relationship.
Prevalence of Substance Abuse among Secondary School Students in Lagos State of Nigeria
Background: Substance abuse among Nigerian in-school youth has been on the rise in recent times with attendant physical and mental health consequences. This study aimed at determining the awareness and knowledge of, attitude to, and prevalence of substance abuse among senior secondary school students in Lagos State of Nigeria. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among senior secondary school students in Lagos using the multistage sampling technique. A pre-tested structured, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data which was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21. The level of significance for statistical analysis was set at p ≤0.05 at a 95% Confidence Interval. Pearson’s Chi square and Fisher's exact tests were used to determine the association between categorical variables. Results: A total of 422 students participated in the study with a mean age of 16.30 ± 1.72 years. Three hundred and seventy-eight respondents (89.6%) indicated that they were aware of substance abuse with television being the commonest first source of information, 134 (35.5%). The overall knowledge of students on substance abuse was good (66.9%) and the attitude to substance abuse was positive among 233 respondents (61.6%). The overall prevalence of substance abuse was 8.3% and the most commonly used substances were opiates such as codeine-containing cough syrup and tramadol (11.6%), followed by tranquilizers (9%), hallucinogens (5.6%) and amphetamines (5.3%) with the influencers of use being mainly family friends (31.4%), parents (22.9%) and peers (22.9%). Conclusion: The study revealed that despite overall good knowledge and positive attitudes, substance abuse remained a practice in this group. There is a need to implement school-wide positive behavioral programs to reduce prevalence and supply reduction interventions to reduce the availability of these substances. There is also a need for further studies to explore the other drivers and facilitators of this phenomenon.
South African Journal of Psychiatry
In Nigeria, common drugs of use were categorised by Haladu 3 as social drugs, stimulants hallucinogens, narcotics sedatives, tranquilisers and miscellaneous solvents. Haladu 3 also identified common factors motivating students to start drug use, including experimental curiosity, peer influence, lack of parental supervision, personality problems, the need for energy to work for long hours, availability of drugs of use, exposure on social media, the need to prevent the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms, purchasing power and cultism. These factors have been confirmed in several findings amongst Nigeria adolescents. Students, especially those in secondary schools, tend to see the drug user as one who is tough, bold and strong. 4 Many Background: Drug abuse, an excessive and persistent self-administration of a drug without regard to the medically or culturally accepted patterns, has been reported amongst teenagers and adolescents in various regions of the world. Aim: This study aimed to measure the prevalence of drug use amongst students of junior and senior secondary schools (aged 10-15 years). Setting: This study was conducted at two local government areas in Lagos State. Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out in Ikotun or Igando local council development area (LCDA) and Ikoyi LCDA of Lagos State. Students were sampled using stratified random sampling with classes as strata and sampling performed by balloting. The modified WHO Model Drug Use Survey Questionnaire was distributed to the students for self-reporting. Ethical approval was received from district school boards. Results: A total of 1048 students participated in the survey. In this study, alcohol had the highest lifetime drug prevalence rate (29.1%), followed by pharmaceutical opioids (9%). Gender, educational level, type of school management, and geographical economic distribution were found to be predictors of prevalence of drug use. This study demonstrated significant differences in the prevalence of tobacco and opioids use among students in private and public schools; and documented statistically significant differences in the prevalence of cocaine use between low income and high-income areas in two LCDAs in Lagos, Nigeria. Conclusion: Prevalence of lifetime, recent use, and current use of drugs among secondary school students in two LCDAs located in Lagos State, Nigeria were documented with alcohol as the drug with the highest prevalence.