Level of health education regarding drugs among Saudi secondary school students in Riyadh City

Abstract

Context: Schools are generally considered promising sites for drug prevention. Some countries such as the United States and United Kingdom widely provide drug education in schools. Aims: The main goal of this study was to evaluate the level of education related to drugs and their effects among students in secondary schools. The secondary goal was to determine the students' opinions on the efforts being made against drug abuse by different agencies in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study. A total of 300 Saudi males from randomly selected secondary schools in Riyadh were given a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained 16 questions, assessing the students' knowledge about drugs and their effects. SPSS version 12.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Descriptive statistics and group comparison were generated. Results: Of the 300 students, the majority (39.3%) relied on friends as the main source of information while only 11.3% depended on schools for such information. Majority of the students (74%) judged the schools' efforts against drugs as poor while 14% assessed that schools made an excellent effort. For the questions of knowledge, final mean results were below 45%, indicating poor levels of knowledge related to drugs and their effects on the body. Conclusions: The general level of knowledge related to the types of drugs among secondary school students was at least very good compared to the poor level of knowledge related to effects on the body and dependency of drugs regardless of what the main source of information the students depended on. Friends should not be the main source of information in preference to agencies such as schools. Research in the area of drug abuse and education is limited, and studies are recommended to be conducted in Saudi Arabia.