Pattern, knowledge and attitude regarding substance use among youth (11-24 years): findings from an exploratory survey

Background: Substance use disorders are becoming a serious public health concern with its slow but gradual increase among adolescents and young adults. The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of youth about substance use. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among youth visiting various outpatient departments of a tertiary care teaching hospital. 270 youth participated in the study and were interviewed using pre-tested and pre-structured proforma entailing information on knowledge, attitude and practices about substance use disorders. Results: Out of 270 study subjects, 54 (51 males and 3 females) had ever used drugs. Among male users, 96.07% used drugs for joy seeking whereas among females 66.66% used drugs due to teenager curiosity. All the respondents had information about drug use, with friends being the major source of information (85.18%) followed by electronic media (81.85%) and school curriculum (48.51%). 97.03% of the respondents knew that anxiety, euphoria, depression, happiness and aggressiveness can occur with substance abuse. Both males (98.64%) and females (97.91%) expressed a positive attitude towards helping a friend who is into drug abuse. Age at first use for tobacco (4%), alcohol (6.38%) and inhalants (12.5%) was found to be as young as 12-15 years. Conclusions: The study participants were found to be knowledgeable about substance use disorders and had a positive attitude on majority of the attitude items. No current user and only 20% ever users in the study may be underreporting.