The worrisome burden, pattern and determinants of adolescent substance abuse in a resource-limited setting

Description

Substance abuse has remained a global burden despite ongoing efforts at mitigating it. This societal menace may have assumed a different dimension from earlier documentations, especially among adolescents. This study aimed to determine the burden, pattern and determinants of adolescent substance abuse. It also aimed to establish the relationship between the tools often applied in drug use studies. This cross-sectional community based descriptive study of 400 adolescent secondary school students enrolled in government approved schools in Umuahia communities, applied a modified WHO student drug use questionnaire and Icup 6 urine drug test kit, to establish the substance use status of study participants. IBM SPSS 20® was used to pool the data and Chi Square, used to test the significance of categorical variables. Spearman Rho correlation analysis tested the relationship between the tools and bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to establish any significant relationship between socio-demographic factors and substance abuse.