Prevalence of substance abuse among higher secondary school students in Kottayam District, Kerala State

Objective: To find out the prevalence of substance abuse among higher secondary school students in Kottayam district of Kerala. Materials and Methods: Interventional study was conducted in selected Higher Secondary schools with the interval of six months period. 48 schools were selected by applying systematic random sampling technique from entire school list. For the sample purpose, each 16 schools has been selected from Government school ie 8 schools from rural and another 8 schools from urban areas. The same proportion was used to select the schools from Aided and Unaided schools respectively. Structured Questionnaires was used for the data collection. Results: Before intervention study, number of students who had smoking habits were high students 88(21.0%). It is quite interesting that, after intervention, the number of students who had habit of smoking was reduced as 32(7.6%). Before intervention study, 19(38.0%) of the students were used substance who belongs to Muslim community followed by Hindus 38(20.5%) and Christians 29(17.1%). 110(26.2%) of students report that they had monthly income of Rs > 25000. Conclusion: The initiation of substance abuse at early adolescence results in continuation of substance to the adulthood. Therefore, preventive strategies are required to be planned and suggested for substance abuse. Government should take up initiative and incorporate the problem and the adverse health effect of substance use in the school curriculum as early as primary level. Conflict of interest: Nil Financial support/Source of funding: Nil