Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive
substances including alcohol, opioids, cannabinoids, hypnotics, cocaine, hallucinogens, tobacco,
caffeine, nicotine. A psychoactive (psychotropic) substance is any substance which after
absorption has influence on mental process, both cognitive and affective. Several studies have
shown that young people are increasingly engaging in substance abuse to their detriment.
AIM: This study was carried out to assess the pattern of substance abuse among secondary
school students in an urban and a rural Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria.
METHODOLOGY: It was a Comparative Descriptive Study. Multistage sampling was applied
in selecting 212 students (108 from secondary schools in the urban LGA and 104 from secondary
schools in the rural LGA.) an self administered questionnaire was used to interview the
IJR - Group
13 Vol. 2 Issue 5 May 2016 Paper 2
International Journal for Medical Science
respondents. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20. The level of significance was set at p <
0.05.
RESULTS: Two hundred and twelve questionnaires were shared out and all were retrieved
giving a response rate of 100.0%. Of all the respondents, 50.9% were from the urban L.G.A and
49.1% were from the rural L.G.A. Majority of students (67%) belong to the 14-17year age group.
All the respondents (100%) reported that they knew what substance abuse meant. The
commonest source of knowledge was their teachers (70.2% in the rural L.G.A.) and (42.6% in
the urban L.G.A.). Forty three (39.8%) of the urban respondents have taken or sniffed any
drug/substance while 36 (34.6%) of the rural respondents have taken or sniffed any substance
however the difference was not statistically significant (X2=1.898, p=0.387). A higher proportion
of the rural respondents (47.2%) abuse alcohol compared with the urban respondents (37.2%),
also a higher proportion of the urban respondents (7.0%) abuse cigarette compared with the rural
respondents (2.8%). This difference was statistically significant (X2 = 3.988, p = 0.040).
Majority of both the urban (41.9%) and the rural (44.4%) respondents were introduced by their
friends. This difference was not statistically significant (X2 = 0.257, p = 0.612).
CONCLUSION: Substance abuse exists among secondary school students in both the urban and
the rural areas in Anambra State of Nigeria, even though the students know what substance abuse
meant, they still engage in the practice. Public health education on the substance abuse should be
intensified among adolescents in both the urban and the rural area of Anambra state
