Abstract
Psychoactive substance use among Secondary School Students has become an increasing public health problem in many countries. This study assessed the prevalence and patterns of psychoactive substance use among senior secondary school students of community secondary school, Umuna. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study in which a sample size of 231 students was selected using simple random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire and data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and presented using tables. The study revealed that alcohol and tobacco were the most commonly abused substance. It also revealed that more than half (51.1%) of the respondents use substance on a daily basis and smoking and sniffing were the most common patterns used. Factors influencing substance use included; peer group pressure and family background. There is a psychoactive substance. It was recommended that Government should ensure the enforcement of anti-psychoactive substance laws and health workers should be trained on how to identify addicts, prevent, and treat victims of drug abuse.
Highlights
IntroductionPsychoactive substances have been widely used all over the world for various reasons
For several centuries, psychoactive substances have been widely used all over the world for various reasons
Age at first use of substance was common among age bracket of 15-19 years (67.0%). This shows that alcohol and tobacco were the most common substances used by the senior secondary school students in community secondary school, Umuna
Summary
Psychoactive substances have been widely used all over the world for various reasons. Several other psychoactive substances have been used in societies for one medicinal purpose or the other. Despite the medicinal benefits of some psychoactive substances and their social acceptability, they are related to some undesirable health, social, legal, and economic outcomes [1]. Psychoactive substance use among secondary school students has become an increasing public health and social problem in many countries. It is the non-medical self-administration of a substance to produce mood changing effect, intoxication, or altered self-image, despite the knowledge of its potential side effects. Substance use is a major public health problem all over the world [2]
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