Awareness of substance use and its associated factors in young Saudi students

Adolescence is the stage that carries the greatest risk for initiating substance use as it is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development. Studies in younger populations have demonstrated a positive association between awareness about substance abuse and their attitudes toward substances. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country with strict laws regarding availability and use of addictive substances. Addictive behaviors tend to be concealed by the users in the Saudi community. However, some studies have revealed that drug abuse is more common in the Saudi community than was previously thought, thus it is necessary to have estimates of existing awareness regarding substance abuse, and its predictors among adolescents for future redressal of this emerging public health issue. The objective of this study was to assess the awareness of secondary school students regarding substance abuse and find its associated social factors. This was a cross sectional study conducted on 1022 secondary school stu-dents using a self administered questionnaire assessing their social characteristics and awareness on substance abuse. Most of students (82.4%) had sufficient awareness ( and #707;60%) regarding substance abuse. Age, scholastic year, subject (science) and being non and ndash;Saudi had positive association with good awareness. Parental education, family income and parental status of living together had significant association with the awareness level of students.