Abstract
To assess factors associated with drug use among adolescent students from schools providing secondary education. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Pelotas, Southern Brazil, in 1998. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was answered by a proportional sample of 10-19-year-old students, enrolled in primary (5th grade and further) and secondary classes in all public and private schools of the urban area which providing secondary education. Schools were visited up to three times in order to reach absent students. Results were expressed as prevalence ratios (PR). 2,410 students were interviewed, losses amounting to 8%. The prevalence of drug use (except alcohol and tobacco) in the last year was 17.1%. After confounder control, associations remained between drug use and parents' divorce (PR=1.46; 95% CI: 1.18-1.80), poor relationship with father (PR=1.67; 95% CI: 1.17-2.38), poor relationship with mother (PR=2.71; 95% CI: 1.64-4.48), open-minded father (PR=1.36; 95% CI: 1.08-1.72), drug user in household (PR=1.61; 95% CI: 1.17-2.18), abuse (PR=1.62; 95% CI: 1.27-2.07), having been mugged or robbed in the previous year (PR=1.38; 95% CI: 1.09-1.76) and absence of religious practice (PR=1.31; 95% CI: 1.07-1.59). The study suggests associations between several family characteristics and drug use by adolescents, providing useful information for a complete understanding of this problem in Brazil.
Highlights
The history of drug production and use is part of the history of humanity itself
Www.fsp.usp.br/rsp tice in general was significantly associated with the outcome, subjects not reporting religious practice showing a roughly 40% greater prevalence of drug use than those who did practice religion (PR=1.44; 95%CI: 1.18-1.75)
Those who reported not believing in God showed a 60% greater prevalence of drug use than believers (PR=1.63; 95%CI: 1.062.52)
Summary
In Brazil, comparisons between studies conducted prior to 1986 were difficult because of differences in the methodologies employed, poorly defined sampling strategies, and sometimes questionable statistical analyses.[4] In 1986, a new generation of surveys began, which were based on questionnaire elaborated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and adapted for Brazil. This questionnaire allowed for the standardization of studies and for the comparison of the results obtained.[5]. Several studies using anonymous self-administered questionnaires have been carried out with the objective of studying the prevalence of drug use.[3,8,10,11,17,18] The Brazilian Center for Information on Psychotropic
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