The Prevalence of drug/substances abused among senior secondary school student in Zaria Education Zone, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study Prevalence of drug/substances abused among senior secondary school student in Zaria Education Zone, Kaduna State, was carried out with the aim to determine the pattern of drug/substance abuse used among four (4) senior secondary schools student in Zaria Education zone. The study employed a cross-sectional study and a Multi-stage sampling method to select eligible respondents.  Eligible respondents selected from the classes were  taken  based on their sizes and already determined number of respondents allotted to the school.  The male to female ratio in each class was also considered during the selection.  Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire developed by reviewing previous studies. The result obtained for the study indicated that most of the respondents were concentrated within the ages of 17 – 21 years. 45% were males while 11.7 % were female. While 1.7% and 0.3% male and female respectively were ages 27above. Respondents that use drugs were more among SSS1 student and they constitute 73.3% of the population. Television constitute the highest source of respondents knowledge on drug abuse with 24.9%, newspaper 15.6%, parents 15.1% while others sources constituted the least 2.6%. Respondents Knowledge on substances generally abused indicated that use of kolanut constituted the highest 17.6%, alcohol and cigarette which are 16.4% and 15.4% respectively. The user and non-users of drugs by sex indicate 37.8% of males among the respondents use drugs/substance while 10.0% of the female respondents are engaged in drug/substance use. 27.3% of the respondents admitted that the reasons influencing use of drug/substances was to enable them read, 21.0% and 12.2% used drug/substances to keep awake and stimulate their moods respectively, while 52.3% of respondent were introduced to drug/substance by their friends. 21.8% and 19.7% of respondents identified that alertness and general ill-health were the common medical effects experienced by the drug users.