Baseline assessment of community knowledge and attitudes toward drug use and harm reduction in Kabul, Afghanistan

Abstract

Problem drug use has been identified as a significant public health problem in Afghanistan. The study aim was to assess community knowledge and attitude toward drug use and harm reduction in Kabul, Afghanistan. A cross-sectional convenience sample of community representatives of 10 possible professions were recruited, distributed between the 17 Kabul city districts in 2007. A questionnaire measured sociodemographic characteristics and awareness, knowledge, and attitudes toward drug use and harm reduction. Logistic regression and cluster analysis were performed to test for associations with participant attitude. Of 210 participants, mean age was 36.7 years. Most (98.6%) were Afghan and employed (87.6%). Most (88.6%) were aware of problem drug use in Afghanistan, primarily attributed to unemployment. The majority of participants agreed that addiction is a disease (88.6%) and believed more and better treatment and vocational training facilities were needed (90.5%). Use of only punitive measures in response to drug use was favoured by few (7.1%) participants. Only 33.3% of participants could correctly identify legal consequences of drug use. Community acknowledgement of problem drug use and support for addiction treatment are present in Kabul, Afghanistan. However, knowledge gaps concerning drug laws and harm reduction should be addressed in efforts to introduce culturally appropriate harm reduction programming.