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Short Communication
A Study on Substance Abuse among School Going Male Adolescents of Doiwala Block, District Dehradun *Vartika Saxena1, Yogesh Saxena2, Gaurav Kishore3, Pratap Kumar4 1 Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Assistant Director, Rural Development Institute, 2Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, 3Regional Programme Officer, Rural Development Institute, 4Research Officer, Rural Development Institute, Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT), Uttarakhand, India
Summary Adolescent boys are recognized as a vulnerable group to substance abuse. The present study has the objective to study the biosocial profile and habit pattern of substance abusers. The study was conducted on 511 male adolescents, students of 10th to 12th class from the four intermediate schools of the Doiwala block of Dehradun district. 46.9% students accepted substance abuse. In 75.5% cases, friends were providing the substances. 80.2% substance abusers expressed their desire to quit the habit. The study is indicative of need for developing a supportive environment involving both parents and teachers so that adolescent can decide and sustain with the right choices for healthy life.
Key words: Male adolescent, Students of intermediate school, Substance abuse
Substance abuse is a growing problem in India. Earlier considered to be a problem of street children, working children and trafficked children, it has now become a wide spread phenomenon affecting all segments of the society. Substance abuse especially among adolescents has become an issue of concern throughout the world (UNDCP, World Drug Report, 1999).1 Adolescents start on drugs for several reasons, from curiosity, recreation for pleasure, and as a need to cope with stress.2 In India approximately 5500 children and adolescent start using tobacco products daily, some as young as 10 years old.3 Particularly alarming is the fact that the age of initiation in substance abuse is progressively falling.1 *Corresponding Author: Dr. Vartika Saxena, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, Doiwala, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. E-mail:
[email protected]
Access this article online Website: www.ijph.in DOI: 10.4103/0019-557X.77260 PMID: ***
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Previous researches have shown that significantly higher proportion of substance abuse was associated with predisposing factors like joint family, parental abuse status, working status, and illiteracy/school dropout, migration, loosening of the traditional methods of social control, etc.4,5 So it becomes more important to examine these factors in the fast changing social milieu. As the previous studies have highlighted the higher prevalence among boys,4,6 hence the current study is being focused on boys for studying the pattern of substance abuse so that appropriate strategies can be developed for preventing and controlling the rising problem. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Block Doiwala of Dehradun district, which is the field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine, Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences. A minimum sample size of 489 was calculated, considering the 45% prevalence as per the previous study of the area6 with sampling error of 10% and 95% confidence limit. A list of all the Government intermediate colleges in the block was obtained from the Department of Education and girl’s colleges were excluded. (There are only two types of colleges in the block-co-education college and girls college.) Block Doiwala was divided into four imaginary sectors having almost equal number of colleges. One college was randomly selected from each
Indian Journal of Public Health, Volume 54, Issue 4, October-December, 2010
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Saxena V, et al.: Substance Abuse among School Going Male Adolescents
of these four sectors. All the male adolescent students (up to 19 years of age) of the classes 10th to 12th in these four colleges were included in the study after taking informed consent. Students were assured of confidentiality. A total of 511 students participated in the study. Approximately 5000 male adolescents attending 10th to 12th class in Government schools constituted the sampling frame. The study was conducted during the month of August and September 2009. Data were collected by trained investigators by an interview method. A questionnaire originally developed by WHO7 was used after certain modifications, in Hindi language after validation. The questionnaire was pretested also and used only after incorporation of necessary modifications. Questionnaire elicited information regarding the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, history of substance abuse, type of abuse, peer influence, inclination for quitting the habit, etc.
Working definitions6 Substance: The substances included in the study were tobacco chewing, beedi, cigarette, supari, gutkha, pan, pan masala, solvents, alcohol, cannabis, opium, heroin, cocaine, LSD, etc. Substance abuser: In this study any participant who has accepted having used one or more mentioned substances during past 1 year and has been taking it at least once in a week or several times in the previous month was considered to be a substance abuser. The data so collected were analyzed by using SPSS software and chi-square value and percentages were calculated. A total of 511 students participated in the study. None of the students had quit the interview; however 7 (2.9%) students did not answer few questions pertaining to their habit pattern and about quitting the habit. Biosocial profile of students [Table 1]: 240 (46.9%) adolescents gave the history of substance abuse. Increasing age was found significantly associated with the increasing prevalence of substance abuse (P0.50 Relationship with family members and substance use Good 325 144 Tensed 53 20 Total 511 240 χ =2.72, df=1, P>0.05 Living status of father, mother and substance abuse Both mother and father alive 479 229 Only mother/ only father/ both not alive 32 11 Total 511 240 χ =2.13, df=1, P>0.50
38.8 45.1 60.3 46.9
45.2 43.7 54.4 46.9
62.6 52.3 45.1 39.2 34 50 46.9
41.3 49.3 41.7 46.9
42.6 48.8 46.9
44.3 37.7 46.9
47.7
34.4 46.9
**For calculating Chi-square value, last two rows have been merged.
of farmers and laborers and the finding was highly significant (P 15 66 14--15 129 10--13 35
