Journal of Steroids & Hormonal Science

Knowledge Regarding Drug Abuse Among School Students

Poonam Kumari Yadav^1* and Rejina Parajauli^{2 *}Correspondence: Poonam Kumari Yadav, Nursing Instructor, Institute of Medicine,Birgunj Nursing Campus, Birta-4 Birgunj, Nepal, Email:

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Introduction

“Drug abuse” is defined as any use of drugs for non-medical purposes almost always for altering consciousness. Drug abuse denotes substances that change the mental or physical state of a person and that may be used repeatedly for that effect leading to abnormality. "Enjoyment" and "Curiosity" were found to have a major influence on their decision to use a substance [1,2]. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics July 2008 report of Nepal, the substances abused in Nepal include cannabis (86.9%), heroin, nitrezepam and buprenorphine (86%), brown sugar (60.5), white sugar (14.3), opium (7.1) and inhalation of adhesives and other polishing substance (2.6%). Substance abuse can be in the form of inhalation, ingestion or intravenous. Altogether there were 46,309 hard drug users of which 92.8% accounted male and 7.2% accounted for female, the average age at the first time drug intake was 17.7. As the first experience of substance abuse often starts in adolescence, and studies have shown that drug use is mainly related to cigarette and alcohol consumption, evidence shows that nearly threefourths (73.1%) of current hard drug users had experienced first-time drug intake before they reach 20 years. Majority of the hard drug users have a level of education below SLC. The injection mode of drug use is one of the major causes of HIV infection in Nepal [3-5]. Academic difficulties (declining grades, absenteeism from school and other activities, and increased potential for dropping out of school), healthrelated problems (accidental injuries, physical disabilities and diseases,and overdoses), poor peer relationships death due to suicide, homicide, accidents, and illness are problems faced by young drug abusers. Both licit and illicit substance use was associated more with male students and the use of a substance by family members had a significant impact on its use by their children [6-8].

As the young age group spends most of their time in school and peers are a strong determinant or influencing factor all these makes this age group prone to use of licit and illicit substance use. The aim of this research was to assess the level of knowledge regarding drug abuse among the students of selected school students and to determine the association between the levels of knowledge regarding drug abuse with selected variables. The findings of the study will be useful to policymakers, researchers, government and non-government agencies, guardians, education providers, health providers and leaders to know the education level on drug abuse.

Materials and Method

Descriptive cross-sectional research was conducted in the Shree Janak Secondary School of province 4, Gaidakot Municipality, ward-5 of Nawalparasi district. At a 10% error and prevalence of 50% 96 samples were required so 106 samples were selected randomly from grades IX (55) and X (51) from each section [9]. Inclusion criteria were students present in the classroom, willing to participate of both genders. Nepali version of the questionnaire was used to collect data. The purpose of the study was explained; participation in this study was voluntary and can withdraw at any time from the study if they wished. Written consent was obtained from the respondent. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the participant. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was filled out by the respondents who were selected for the study. Anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents and data were maintained by giving a unique code number to each participant. The duration for the self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was 20 minutes-30 minutes.

All collected data were reviewed and checked for completeness, consistency and accuracy. The collected data were organized, coded and entered in excel and transfer to SPSS version 26. The findings were analyzed using descriptive statistics; percentages and frequency. The chi-square test was used to find an association between selected demographic variables and level of knowledge.

The semi-structured questionnaire was developed through an intensive literature review, consultation with a research guide and subject expert in the related field. The instrument was pretested among 10% of the total sample i.e. students of class IX & X of Tri Juddha Madhyamic Vidhyalaya Birta-4 Birgunj, Parsa. The reliability of the knowledge questionnaire was 0.90.

Self-administered structured knowledge questionnaire was used for data collection. It was divided into two parts. Part I consist of 14 items related to selected socio-demographic variables such as age, sex, ethnicity, religion, economic status, parent’s education, parent’s occupation, peer pressure, family history relation with a parent, teenage curiosity to assess the knowledge regarding drug abuse. Part II consist of 19 structured knowledge questionnaire to assess the knowledge regarding drug abuse to obtain information regarding definition, causes, sign & symptom, effect, prevention, complication and treatment of drug abuse.

Results and Discussion

Drug abuse affects a person’s nutrition, sleep, decision-making and impulsivity, a risk for trauma, violence, injury, and there is a risk of communicable diseases to both people who are taking drugs and those around them. The effect on the ability to control their stress level, decision making, ability to learn and remember, etc. make it much more difficult for someone to stop taking the drug even when it’s having negative effects on their life and they want to quit. Long-term effects include heart or lung disease, cancer, mental illness, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and others [10]. Most drug users are 56.1% students, 95.4% smokers and 85.7% influenced by their friends [11].

The Narcotics Drugs (Control) Act, of 1976 has provisions for the prevention and treatment of drug users. The Department of Narcotics Control under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has responsibility for narcotics issues in Nepal [12]. The findings of the present study showed a majority (57.9%) of the respondents had poor knowledge regarding drug abuse, 41.5% had satisfactory and 0.9% had good knowledge. A study carried out among high school adolescents of Dhaka by Zaman and Almajidi [13] revealed that among 120 students, 84.2% had poor knowledge about drug abuse, 15.8% had average knowledge and none had good knowledge about it. Whereas, Tsering, Pal and Das Gupta [2] revealed that the level of knowledge on the harmfulness of substance use was very high (urban 84.6% and rural 61.5%) among high school students in India. The study conducted by Haddad L. on Jordanian adolescents showed students of both sexes were knowledgeable about aspects of substance abuse [14]. Billalli SF. finding contradicts with current study and revealed that the majority (65%) had inadequate knowledge and (35%) had moderate knowledge regarding drug abuse and its ill effects [15].

Almost 99.1% of the respondents heard about drug abuse. Among them, 41.5% heard from mass media and 12.3% from family. A study carried out by Tsering, Pal and Das Gupta (2010) revealed that media was the most frequent source of information among high school adolescents in India (Table 1).

Table 1: Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents

Regarding the meaning of drug abuse, almost all (95.3%) of the respondents said inconsistent use of drugs and a few (0.9%) said using a necessary tablet. A similar study carried out in Nigeria by Adebowale et al. revealed, that more than 50% know the meaning of drug abuse, the dangers of using drugs wrongly and the legal status of drug abuse [16]. Among the respondents, almost all (95.3%) said teenage curiosity /peer pressure is the cause of drug abuse in students. UN Office on Drug and Crime reported that peer pressure, curiosity and lack of awareness are the main reasons for youth getting involved in drug use in Nepal (Table 2).

Table 2: Respondents Knowledge on Drug Abuse

The present study shows that most (84%) of the respondents said drug-abused people can get out of it. A similar study carried out by Bhattarai and Chudal in Biratnagar, Nepal showed that more than three-fourths (75.8%) mentioned people can get rid of drug addiction (Table 3).

Table 3: Respondent’s Knowledge of: Cause, Sign and Symptom and Effects of Drug Abuse

Majority (71.7%) of the respondents said awareness programs as the way to prevent drug abuse and 26.4% said counselling. Similarly, 52.8% said rehabilitation is the way to treat drug abuse and 0.9% said to leave the person alone. A similar study carried out in Biratnagar, Nepal by Bhattarai and Chudal showed that around two third (68.2%) respond that drug addiction can be controlled by awareness programs and counselling whereas others i.e. 31.8 % are unaware of it. Out of 66 respondents, 80.3% said that media help to control drug addiction by delivering knowledge about drugs. Two third (66.7%) said drug addiction can be treated with rehabilitation, providing counselling and the use of medicine (Table 4,5).

Table 4: Respondent’s Knowledge Regarding Prevention, Treatment and Complications of Drug abuse

Table 5: Frequency and percentage of respondents’ Level of Knowledge Regarding Drug Abuse.

This study supports that knowledge regarding drug abuse is significantly associated with education level, family occupation and family members involved in drug addiction (Table 6).

Table 6: Association of Respondent's Level of Knowledge with Selected Variables

Drug abuse affects individuals, families and social life. There is an increase in the number of adolescents in licit and illicit use of the substance. This state of substance abuse needs to be focused on time if not, the state will lose a huge number of productive and creative human resources and there will be a state increase in criminal activities. Adequate knowledge of drug abuse and its effects to adolescents, creating a healthy school, social and family environments for children and adolescents is one of the key steps necessary to prevent this problem [17]. Beside this, since, senior household members are the first and most effective educators to their kids, they should be provided with informal education about drug abuse, its cause, consequences and preventive ways for getting rid of drug abuse.

Conclusion

From the result, it is concluded that above half of the respondents had poor knowledge regarding drug abuse and the level of knowledge is significantly higher for Brahmin/Chhetri and poor for Janajati, Dalit and Madhesi. So, a special educational package should be included in the course contents. Narcotics Drugs (Control) Act, 1976 (2033 BS) is the legal framework for drug control issues in Nepal. The Ministry of Home Affairs has established a National Coordination Committee for Drug Abuse Control (NCC) for strengthening management procedures, policy and strategy.

Limitation

The study was conducted only in Shree Janak Secondary School of Gaidakot Nawalparasi. So the finding cannot be generalized to other setting.

Recommendation

Intervention programs like health education, awareness program should be undertaken in order to maintain the knowledge regarding drug abuse at an optimum level. Curriculum regarding drug abuse can be included in their academic schedule. Similar studies can be conducted on a larger scale for wider application. A comparative study can be carried out between government and private secondary schools.

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