Substance use among students of professional institutes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ABSTRACT

The study was aimed at determining the frequency, common type and causes of substance use among the professional institute of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan as well as comparing substance users based on gender and their residence [day scholars versus hostellers]. Three professional institutes i.e., Khyber Medical College [KMC] Peshawar, University of Engineering and technology [UET] Peshawar and Ghulam Ishaq Khan University [GIK] Topi were selected from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for the study. From these three institutes, 300 willing participants both men and women were selected. Alcohol, Smoking, Substance Involvement Screening Test was administered on the sample. Chi-square was used to analyze the data. Hundreds students each were taken from KMC, UET and GIK. The age range of the sample was 19-25 years with a mean of 21.76 +/- 1.16 years. There were 204 [68%] students using various substances. Out of these, 138 were males and 66 females. The common substance used by the students was tobacco products [n=124, 41.4%] followed by sedatives [n= 44, 14.7%] and alcohol [n=20, 6.7%]. Out of 152 students residing in hostels, 91 were using substances compared to 63 out of 148 day scholars. The study revealed that Tobacco was the most common substance used in the study population. Males and students living in hostels were more substance consumer as compared to females and day scholars, respectively