Regional Health Forum WHO South-East Asia Region(Volume 6, Number 2)

Research

Substance and Drug Abuse: Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Schoolgoing Adolescents in Bangladesh
Syed Masud Ahmed*, AKM Masud Rana# Shamim Matin Chowdhury**, Anne Mills, Sara Bennett**

Attitude towards substance/drug abuse

Encouragingly, the participants appeared to be socially conscious in their attitude towards substance/drug abuse (Table 3). Majority of them were aware of the harmful effects of substance/drug abuse on society (86%) and human body (83%) as well as negative image of addicts in society (62%). More than 70% of the participants linked substance/drug abuse to disturbed family peace, while 64% cited it to be responsible for poor academic performance. In response to the question about their ideas regarding kinds of boys and girls who abuse substances/drugs, the participants identified family environment (70%) as the major determinant for suscepti-bility to such practice. Negligible sex difference was noted among the responses.

Table 3. Stated attitude and susceptibility to substance/drug abuse by sex (%)*

* multiple responses considered

The attitude of the participants towards substance/drug abuse to probe further, an unstructured query was placed in the questionnaire about whether they would like to make friends with a person known to be abusing substances/drugs and the reasons thereof. Only a small propor-tion displayed positive attitude, girls more than the boys, and an equal proportion remained undecided. Of those who responded positively, majority thought that counselling by peers about the harms of drug abuse might motivate addicts to give up the bad habit.

Here we cite two representative comments, one positive and one negative, on this issue respectively:

     "A boy or girl indulges in drug addiction only when s/he has sorrow, and under stress…if we don’t make friends with them, they will feel lonely, especially those without guardians. But, if we make friends with them and make them understand that addiction is not good, it is harmful for you and the country - then they may listen. If we keep away from them, they wouldn’t know".

     "Because everybody mixes with good boys and girls, but nobody mixes with a person who takes drugs! If I mix with them, I may start taking drugs slowly due to pressure from them…sanctity of my mind and character will be lost. There will be no peace in the family…unnecessarily money will be spent".

Perceptions about the cause, prevention and curability of substance/drug abuse

We probed participants’ perception about the factors responsible for initiating substances/drug use by the adolescents. Interestingly, the most common factors perceived by them were quarrelsome family environment (68%), pressure from peer group (50%), and frustration (50%) (Table 4). In response to how substance/drug abuse can be prevented, the participants made quite a number of practical sugges-tions. Interestingly, majority of the partici-pants perceived that drug addiction is completely curable with treatment (56%).

To quote some of their observations on how drug abuse can be prevented:

     "Parents should be cautious about quarrelling before their children… there should be good relations between parents…there should be a peaceful environment in the family."

     "Parents should not exert pressure for studying…even if someone performs poorly in the exam, s/he should not be scolded badly…"

     "Teachers should equally treat all students...they shouldn’t be hurt before others…"

     "Adults should not smoke or drink in front of the adolescents and children."

Table 4 Perception about cause, prevention and curability of substance/drug abuse by sex (%)

Tobacco smoking

In this section, we will present some findings from in-depth probing on tobacco smoking (Table 5). Reportedly, around 26% of the participants’ friends currently smoke, more boys than girls. Around 43% of the participants stated that at least a member in the family, mostly father, was a smoker.

Table 5 In-depth probing on tobacco smoking by sex (%)

When probed specifically about the participant’s own tobacco habit, 11% were found to be long term smokers while only 6% revealed themselves as current smokers, regular or irregular. In both instances, boys greatly out-proportioned girls. Majority of the current smokers started smoking from Class IX/Class X, and about 9% started as early as at the primary level. There was not much difference between boys and girls in this regard. The respondents stated peer pressure, curiosity, and entertainment to be the three most common reasons underlying their experi-mentation with smoking. Interestingly, ‘current smoker’ status was positively asso ciated with father’s occupation in business/ trade, mother’s schooling under 12 years, presence of a smoker in the family, lack of congenial relationship between parents, co-residence with someone other than parents, and poor academic achievement (not shown).