Prevalence and perception of drug use amongst secondary school students in two local government areas of Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

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.

Prevalence, associated factors and level of dependence of substance use among urban secondary school students, Benin

“…In the ongoing study, there were no significant gender differences. However, males were more likely to use many psychoactive substances such as tobacco, cannabis, opioids, and cocaine, compared to female, which was consistent with findings of other studies 22,23,30,31 . Because of risk‐taking, males are more likely to experiment with substances compared to females.…”

“…Alcohol was the most commonly used substance both with a lifetime (82.9%) and current use (62.6%). This observation had been made in a study conducted among secondary school students in Lagos 23 . The prevalence found in our study was higher than that reported among secondary school students in Brazil 24 and other African countries 13,21 .…”

Assessment of use of psychoactive and other non-prescription drugs among students of selected tertiary institutions in Ekiti State South West Nigeria - A baseline study

“…The same findings were also reported amongst secondary school students in Abakaliki, Southern Nigeria. The prevalence of substance abuse was 32.9% with alcohol being the most commonly abused substance [12]. In East Africa, psychoactive drug use documented among adolescents in Ugandan public schools (mean age 15.2), the rate of use of proscribed addictive substances, cannabis, heroin, and cocaine, ranged between 4.0 and 4.8% though these pupils are even much younger than the tertiary institution students in this study [4].…”

“…In Nigeria, common drugs of abuse have been categorized as social drugs (alcohol and tobacco), stimulants (caffeine and amphetamines), hallucinogens, Narcotics (heroin, codeine, opium and other synthetic derivatives like tramadol), sedatives, tranquilizers (benzodiazepines etc) and miscellaneous inhalants [6]. Another survey among students in a public secondary school in Lagos, Nigeria found an overall life-time prevalence of substance use of 39 percent [11] while in Abakaliki, Southern Nigeria, a prevalence of substance abuse of 32.9% was reported amongst secondary school students, with alcohol being the most commonly abused substance [12]. Another set of secondary school students in both high and low income areas of Lagos, (the capital and a highly urbanised city in Nigeria) self-reported the use of psychoactive substances with the main difference in drug choice being a factor of cost and affordability [13].…”

Prescription Opioids and New Psychoactive Substances Use in Nigeria: A Systematic Review and Policy Implications

“…for university students (Ehis et al, 2021), and 0.86% -10.4% for secondary school pupils (Bassi et al, 2017;Obadeji et al, 2020;Ogunkunle et al, 2020;Soremekun et al, 2020). The prevalence rate for the NMU of codeine for the past month among university students was 1.8% (Idowu et al, 2018), which was lower compared to the 45.4% for secondary school pupils (Idowu et al, 2018).…”