Assessment of Awareness, Knowledge and Prevalence of Substance Abuse Among Secondary School Students at Igunga District in Tabora Region.
Ndezi, Solomon [Male]
Assessment of Awareness, Knowledge and Prevalence of Substance Abuse Among Secondary School Students at Igunga District in Tabora Region. - Mwanza, Tanzania: Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences [CUHAS - Bugando] : 2012 - 40 Pages Includes References and Appendices
Abstract:
Background: The problem of substance abuse among young people including students have been increasing in our country and most of African countries due to globalization and as means of getting money easily through its trade activities. Through various studies it has been shown that there is an increase in substance abuse practice among youth in most parts of our country. Through knowing the awareness of students towards substance abuse the magnitude of substance abuse could be established and this will help the policy maker and health planners toward establishing a definitive solution toward this problem. So this study focuses on all those aspects.
Objective: The objective of this study is to access the awareness’s, knowledge and prevalence of substance abuse among secondary school students at Igunga district in Tabora region.
Methods: Researcher designed questionnaire were used. A study was cross sectional analytical study. Only those who were given oral informed consent and met inclusion criteria were included in the study. The data was double entered, cleaned, and both descriptive and inferential analysis done using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17.
Results: A total of 249 students were interviewed. The level of awareness of substance abuse among students from Mwanzugi and Mbutu secondary schools was high (97.2%), among these students aged 12-18 years old had good awareness (55.8%) as compared to students aged 19-24 years old (44.2%). Male students showed to have good awareness (67.7%) as compared to female (32.3%). Most of students accept to have heard about substance abuse from various sources (43%) with media being the secondly mostly source of information (37.8%). Influence from friends stand to be the common factor that lead to students being involved in substance abuse (49.0%). Of all the students interviewed only (4%) report to use substance abuse. Also students have good knowledge about the long term side effects of substance abuse with brain damage being the most known side effect. (41.8%). Most of students who use substance abuse showed to use more than one substance abuse (53.8%) with common being cannabis (15.7%).
Conclusion and Recommendations: Influence from friends remain to be a great contributory factors for most of students to involve themselves in substance abuse hence there is a need for the government and other policy maker to focus on educating young people on how to avoid themselves from bad influential friends that may lead them into substance abuse.
Wurzburg Road 35, BMC Premises, Post Code: 33102: P. O Box 1464, Mwanza – Tanzania: Phone: +255 28 298 3384: Fax: +255 28 298 3386: Email: vc@bugando.ac.tz : www.bugando.ac.tz
--Psychiatry--Community Medicine
Assessment of Awareness, Knowledge and Prevalence of Substance Abuse Among Secondary School Students at Igunga District in Tabora Region. - Mwanza, Tanzania: Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences [CUHAS - Bugando] : 2012 - 40 Pages Includes References and Appendices
Abstract:
Background: The problem of substance abuse among young people including students have been increasing in our country and most of African countries due to globalization and as means of getting money easily through its trade activities. Through various studies it has been shown that there is an increase in substance abuse practice among youth in most parts of our country. Through knowing the awareness of students towards substance abuse the magnitude of substance abuse could be established and this will help the policy maker and health planners toward establishing a definitive solution toward this problem. So this study focuses on all those aspects.
Objective: The objective of this study is to access the awareness’s, knowledge and prevalence of substance abuse among secondary school students at Igunga district in Tabora region.
Methods: Researcher designed questionnaire were used. A study was cross sectional analytical study. Only those who were given oral informed consent and met inclusion criteria were included in the study. The data was double entered, cleaned, and both descriptive and inferential analysis done using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 17.
Results: A total of 249 students were interviewed. The level of awareness of substance abuse among students from Mwanzugi and Mbutu secondary schools was high (97.2%), among these students aged 12-18 years old had good awareness (55.8%) as compared to students aged 19-24 years old (44.2%). Male students showed to have good awareness (67.7%) as compared to female (32.3%). Most of students accept to have heard about substance abuse from various sources (43%) with media being the secondly mostly source of information (37.8%). Influence from friends stand to be the common factor that lead to students being involved in substance abuse (49.0%). Of all the students interviewed only (4%) report to use substance abuse. Also students have good knowledge about the long term side effects of substance abuse with brain damage being the most known side effect. (41.8%). Most of students who use substance abuse showed to use more than one substance abuse (53.8%) with common being cannabis (15.7%).
Conclusion and Recommendations: Influence from friends remain to be a great contributory factors for most of students to involve themselves in substance abuse hence there is a need for the government and other policy maker to focus on educating young people on how to avoid themselves from bad influential friends that may lead them into substance abuse.
Wurzburg Road 35, BMC Premises, Post Code: 33102: P. O Box 1464, Mwanza – Tanzania: Phone: +255 28 298 3384: Fax: +255 28 298 3386: Email: vc@bugando.ac.tz : www.bugando.ac.tz
--Psychiatry--Community Medicine