Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Psychoactive Drug Use Among High School Students in Bogota, Colombia

Abstract

This descriptive study identified health behaviors practiced by 10th-grade students enrolled in public schools in Bogotá, Colombia. A modified version of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey assessed the health-related behaviors of 1,730 students. In this paper data for tobacco, alcohol, and psychoactive substances use are discussed. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine statistical significance among selected behavioral risk areas and the independent variables that were nominally scaled. Data from the study revealed a high use of gateway substances (tobacco and alcohol) among high school students in Bogotá, but lower usage, when compared to US students, of other mind-altering substance such as marijuana, inhalants, and cocaine.

Daily cigarette smoking among colombian high school students: gender related psychosocial factors

“…The prevalence of DCS is between 1.3% and 23.0% depending on gender, grade, ethnicity and religion (4)(5)(6)(7)(8) . Studies on Colombian cigarette smoking among high school students are scarce (9)(10)(11) . One research reported prevalence of daily cigarette smoking of 7.7% among 11 th grade students in Medellín (9) and another found prevalence of 16.0%…”

“…These studies used the same questionnaire for substance use epidemiological survey (VESPA), however, this instrument is sufficiently accurate if cigarette consumption occurs everyday during the previous month. Another study documented that 11.0% of 10 th grade students enrolled in public schools in Bogotá had smoked every day in the previous month (11) .…”

“…with individual characteristics, for instance, low selfperceived academic ability (11) ; and also with contextual factors, that is, smoking among parents, siblings and friends (5)(6)(7)(8) , and other health risk behaviors like abusive alcohol consumption or illegal substance use (11) .…”

“…In boys, DCS was related to previous month substance use (OR 6.23,, being the best friend of a smoker (OR 5.87,, poor or mediocre academic achievement (OR 2.09,, and being older than non-smokers (OR 1.48, (OR 8,13, IC95% 3,87), consumo abusivo de alcohol (OR 5,88, IC 95% 2,70), mejor amigo fumador (OR 3,25, IC 95% 1,63) y pobre o regular rendimiento académico (OR 2,46, IC95% 1,85). En varones, el CDC se relacionó con consumo de alguna sustancia ilegal (OR 6,23, IC 95% 3,71), mejor amigo fumador (OR 5,87, IC 95% 2,76), pobre o regular rendimiento académico (OR 2,09, IC 95% 1,24) y más años de edad (OR 1,48, IC 95% 1,81 11,6% (IC 95% 9,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]5) em varões e 4.4% (IC 95% 3,(3)(4)(5)5) em mulheres. Em mulheres, o CDC associou-se ao consumo de alguma substância ilegal (OR 8,13; IC 95% 3,87), consumo abusivo de álcool (OR 5,88, IC 95%2,7), melhor amigo fumador (OR 3,25, IC 95% 1,63) e pobre o regular rendimento acadêmico (OR 2,46, IC 95% 1,85).…”

Factores asociados con el consumo diario de cigarrillo en adolescentes estudiantes de básica secundaria de Bucaramanga, Colombia.

“…En estudiantes de media vocacional se ha observado que el consumo diario de cigarrillo se asocia en forma significativa con una serie de consecuencias negativas tales como consumo de otras sustancias, por ejemplo, alcohol y marihuana, deserción y fracaso académico, accidentes, violencia, relaciones sexuales de alto riesgo para embarazos no planeados o enfermedades transmisibles sexualmente, y suicidio (11)(12)(13).…”