Substance use among secondary school students in an urban setting in Nigeria: prevalence and associated factors

Abstract

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.

Magnitude of Psychoactive Substance Abuse among University Students, Adigrat, North Ethiopia: Cross Sectional Study

“…A significant number of students consume Khat to be alert and wakeful at night, especially during examination periods (EPHA). Availability of substances, age, gender, having friends and families who use substances were the commonly mentioned factors that influence substances use [3][4][5]. Of the young segment of the Ethiopian population, college and University students are the most at risk of using alcohol and other drugs such as Khat and tobacco.…”

Prevalence of <i>Catha edulis</i> (Khat) Chewing and Its Associated Factors among Ataye Secondary School Students in Northern Shoa, Ethiopia

“…Furthermore, it is widely masticated among youth Ethiopians, especially high school, college and university students (Damena et al, 2011). Its effects on the chewers include increased levels of energy, increased self-esteem, euphoria, increased libido, excitement, and increased proclivity for social interaction (Deressa & Azazh, 2011;Oshodi et al, 2010). Even though khat chewing has addictive and negative physical, economical and social connotation effects, it has positive economic, social and medicinal values (Lemessa, 2001).…”

“…The above mentioned investigators findings depicted that there were many factors associated with khat chewing among students. Of which, most studies (Deressa & Azazh, 2011;Oshodi et al, 2010;EPHA, 2006) showed that being male, having peers who chewed khat, having family members who chewed khat, residence place, religion and seniority in the case of college/university students were statistically significant.…”

“…Moreover, many adolescents have low knowledge towards adverse effects of khat chewing as indicated in literature (Oshodi et al, 2010). Though khat chewing has become a common practice among high school, college and university students in Ethiopia, few studies have assessed the prevalence and associated factors.…”

Knowledge and attitude of the secondary school and college students about drug abuse and participation in prevention programs in Tanta city, Egypt

“…In accordance to Abianwu (2005) (33) , who stressed that cannabis is by far the most commonly used illicit drug with the usage of 4% of the world population compared to 1% for all other drugs combined. Oshodi et al, (2010) (34) , also explained in their study that marijuana is the most commonly used substance followed by tobacco. They further confirmed that in the United Kingdom, crosssectional studies have shown that among students aged 15-16 years, at least 40% had used illicit drugs, mainly cannabis, at some time during their lives.…”