Increased illicit substance use among Zimbabwean adolescents and youths during the COVID‐19 era: an impending public health disaster

Mukwenha, Solomon; Murewanhema, Grant; Madziva, Roda; Dzinamarira, Tafadzwa; Herrera, Helena; Musuka, Godfrey

doi:10.1111/add.15729

“…However, the global pandemic and national lockdown in Zimbabwe were likely perceived as stressful events that would be unlikely to reduce overall violence prevalence. Evidence of widespread loss of livelihoods, increase in poor mental health and the rise of substance abuse in Zimbabwe support the hypothesis that the pandemic was stressful on the population level, and these are all factors associated with violence against children [41][42][43][44][45][46]. Rather, it is likely that help-seeking for violence decreased in this time period.…”

Section: Implications and Explanation Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 93%

National COVID-19 lockdown and trends in help-seeking for violence against children in Zimbabwe: an interrupted time-series analysis

Cerna-Turoff

¹

,

Nyakuwa

²

,

Turner

³

et al. 2022

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Background An estimated 1.8 billion children live in countries where COVID-19 disrupted violence prevention and response. It is important to understand how government policies to contain COVID-19 impacted children’s ability to seek help, especially in contexts where there was limited formal help-seeking prior to the pandemic. We aimed to quantify how the national lockdown in Zimbabwe affected helpline calls for violence against children, estimated the number of calls that would have been received had the lockdown not occurred and described characteristics of types of calls and callers before and after the national lockdown. Methods We used an interrupted time series design to analyse the proportion of violence related calls (17,913 calls out of 57,050) to Childline Zimbabwe’s national child helpline between 2017 to 2021. We applied autoregressive integrated moving average regression (ARIMA) models to test possible changes in call trends before and after the March 2020 lockdown and forecasted how many calls would have been received in the absence of lockdown. In addition, we examined call characteristics before and after lockdown descriptively. Results The proportion of violence related calls decreased in the 90 days after the lockdown and subsequently returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. We estimate that 10.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.0–14.6%) more violence related calls would have occurred in this period had there not been a lockdown. Violence was increasingly reported as occurring in children’s households, with fewer reports from children and formal child protection actors. Conclusions Lockdowns dramatically change everyday life and strain populations, which is unlikely to reduce violence prevalence but may reduce help-seeking. The three months after COVID-19 lockdowns may be key time periods when help-seeking for violence decreases drastically. Policy makers should ensure that in-person and remote services support help-seeking. Interventions and campaigns may additionally want to target adult female family members in encouraging reporting of suspected violence cases when they occur within households and are perpetuated by other family members. We suggest a composite approach of scaling-up remote reporting mechanisms that are accessible and geographically well-distributed, establishing non-traditional sites for help seeking within communities and continuing limited in-person home visitation for known cases of violence.

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“…In line with data across the sub-Saharan Africa region, evidence suggests an upward trend of substance use in the Zimbabwean population [6]. For example, between 2009-2019, alcohol use was up from 9 th to 8 th place, in the top 10 risk factors contributing to disability adjusted life years (DALYS) in Zimbabwe [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Understanding the nature of substance use in Zimbabwe: State of the art and ways forward: A scoping review protocol

Marandure

¹

,

Mhizha

²

,

Wilson

³

et al. 2023

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Reports of substance use in Zimbabwe paint a concerning picture of escalating prevalence of use, with over half of people admitted to inpatient mental health units reportedly experiencing a substance induced disorder. The country has gone through decades of significant political and socio-economical challenges, which are undoubtedly linked to the observed increases in substances use. Nevertheless, despite the resource constraints to adequately address substance use, the government has shown a renewed resolve to provide a comprehensive approach to address substance use in the country. However, there is a lack of clarity of the nature and extent of substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs), which in part is due to a lack of a national monitoring system for substance use in the country. Moreover, reports of a substance use crisis in Zimbabwe are predominantly based on anecdotal evidence, limiting the ability to gain an accurate picture of the situation. Therefore, a scoping review of the primary empirical evidence of substance use and SUDs is proposed in order to develop an adequately informed understanding of the nature of substance use and SUDs in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the review will embed an assessment of the response to substance use, together with an analysis of the policy landscape on substance use in Zimbabwe. The PRISMA-ScR checklist will be utilised for the write up. The results of the scoping review will be essential for identifying the current state of knowledge around substance use, and identify gaps in knowledge and policy that would be a catalyst for further work to enhance knowledge and develop solutions situated within the local context. Thus the present work presents a timely effort that capitalises on current efforts by the government to address substance use in the country.

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“…Anecdotal evidence also suggests a rise in substance use fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns [10, 11], so much so that is has been labelled an ‘impending public health disaster’ [12]. The ease of availability of substances, together with a lack of recreational activities for young people during lockdowns have both been cited as potential reasons for the increase [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anecdotal evidence also suggests a rise in substance use fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns [10, 11], so much so that is has been labelled an ‘impending public health disaster’ [12]. The ease of availability of substances, together with a lack of recreational activities for young people during lockdowns have both been cited as potential reasons for the increase [12]. However, even prior to the pandemic, drug use, particularly among the youth in Zimbabwe, was already reported to be reaching crisis levels [13], with concerns around drug use in vulnerable populations such as children living on the streets [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the nature of substance use in Zimbabwe: State of the art and ways forward: A scoping review protocol

Marandure

¹

,

Mhizha

²

,

Wilson

³

et al. 2022

Preprint

1

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reports of substance use in Zimbabwe paint a concerning picture of escalating prevalence of use, with over half of people admitted to inpatient mental health units reportedly experiencing a substance induced disorder. The country has gone through decades of significant political and socio-economical challenges, which are undoubtedly linked to the observed increases in substances use. Nevertheless, despite the resource constraints to adequately address substance use, the government has shown a renewed resolve to provide a comprehensive approach to address substance use in the country. However, there is a lack of clarity of the nature and extent of substance use and substance use disorders (SUDs), which in part is due to a lack of a national monitoring system for substance use in the country. Moreover, reports of a substance use crisis in Zimbabwe are predominantly based on anecdotal evidence, limiting the ability to gain an accurate picture of the situation. Therefore, a scoping review of the primary empirical evidence of substance use and SUDs is proposed in order to develop an adequately informed understanding of the nature of substance use and SUDs in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the review will embed an assessment of the response to substance use, together with an analysis of the policy landscape on substance use in Zimbabwe. The PRISMA-ScR checklist will be utilised for the write up. The results of the scoping review will be essential for identifying the current state of knowledge around substance use, and identify gaps in knowledge and policy that would be a catalyst for further work to enhance knowledge and develop solutions situated within the local context. Thus the present work presents a timely effort that capitalises on current efforts by the government to address substance use in the country.

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Increased illicit substance use among Zimbabwean adolescents and youths during the COVID‐19 era: an impending public health disaster

Cited by 18 publications

References 1 publication

National COVID-19 lockdown and trends in help-seeking for violence against children in Zimbabwe: an interrupted time-series analysis

National COVID-19 lockdown and trends in help-seeking for violence against children in Zimbabwe: an interrupted time-series analysis

Understanding the nature of substance use in Zimbabwe: State of the art and ways forward: A scoping review protocol

Understanding the nature of substance use in Zimbabwe: State of the art and ways forward: A scoping review protocol

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