Smoking, Alcohol Consumption, and Illegal Substance Abuse among Adolescents in Sri Lanka: Results from Sri Lankan Global School-Based Health Survey 2016

Abstract

Background. Adolescence is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the transition period from childhood to adulthood”. Increases in autonomy during this period, willingness to experiment, and peer influence create an environment of taking high-risk decisions influencing adolescent health, such as substance abuse and smoking. The current study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of smoking, alcohol consumption, and illegal substance abuse and their determinants on in-school adolescents using data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey, Sri Lanka in 2016. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 3,650 students using a self-administered questionnaire in government schools. Weighted prevalence was calculated, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the correlates. Results. The prevalence of current alcohol, smoking, smokeless tobacco consumption, and substance abuse, 30 days before the survey, was 3.4% (95% CI 2.6 - 4.3), 3.6% (95% CI 2.5-5.0), 2.3% (95% CI 1.5-3.7), and 2.7% (95% CI - 1.7-4.2%). Male sex and involvement in physical fighting were independently associated with increased risk in all four substance categories assessed. Multivariate analysis using multiple logistic regression revealed that only the male sex and involvement in physical fighting were correlates for four substance categories assessed when confounding effects of other variables were accounted for. Being in the 16-17 age category, parents’ tobacco use and seeing actors consuming alcohol on TV increased the risk of alcohol consumption, smoking, and smokeless tobacco. Having ever attempted suicide was positively associated with increased risk for alcohol consumption, smoking, and illegal substance abuse. Conclusion. Alcohol use, smoking, smokeless tobacco use, and illegal substance abuse by students remain a concern in Sri Lanka and implementing life skills-based interventions at schools is recommended.

Assessment of Exposure to Sexually Explicit Materials and Substance Abuse among High-School Adolescents in North Shewa Zone: Application of Logistic Regression Analysis

“…e magnitude of the prevalence lifetime and current cigarettes smoking were almost similar 4.8% and 4.5%, respectively. is finding is lower than a study in Woldia Town 23.5% [21] and a study in Addis Ababa University students 9% [15], and a study in Rift Valley University 18.4% [37], but higher than a study in Sri Lanka 2.3% [35]. is small prevalence in this study may be attributed to underreporting due to self-reporting or it might be because of the differences in study setting and population.…”

“…In the current study, the prevalence of a lifetime and current alcohol use was 42.16% and 26.1%, which is congruent with a study in Uganda [38] that reported 26.8% of current alcohol users and is lower than a study done in Woreta Town [22] that reported 40.9% and 59% prevalence of current and life time prevalence of alcohol use, while a similar study conducted in Sri Lanka reported a lower prevalence of alcohol uses (3.4%) [35]. e current and lifetime prevalence of khat chewing was 16.6% and 17.8%.…”

“…e lifetime prevalence of substance uses was 47.75% and the prevalence of current substance use is 30.4%. e finding of this study is lower than studies conducted in Haramaya university [13] that reported 62.4% of lifetime prevalence of substance use, in Woreta Town [22] that reported 65.4% prevalence of lifetime substance use and 47.9% prevalence of current substance use among high school students, a study conducted in Woldia Town [21] reported 50% prevalence of current substance, and in Kenya [34] that reported 69.8% of lifetime substance use, but higher than finding of a systematic review and meta-analysis study in sub-Saharan Africa [14] that reported 41.6% of lifetime prevalence of substance use, in Sri Lanka [35] that reported 2.7% prevalence of lifetime substance use, in India [36] that reported 12.5% prevalence of life time substance use, in Southeast Asia [19] that reported 16.9% of lifetime drug use, and in Nepal [18] that reported 6% prevalence current substance use. A study conducted in Rift Valley University [37] also reported a slightly lower 44.8% prevalence of lifetime substance use and a higher prevalence of current substance use 39.1%.…”

Psycho-social wellbeing among in-school adolescents of Sri Lanka; prevalence of selected attributes and associated factors

“…Out of these, factors related to the domains of lack of parental involvement, presence of violence and not engaging in sports activities were detected as independently associated with the psycho-social attributes. Even if the substance-use did not yield direct signi cant associations with these four attributes, these are well known to be associated with factors that increase their likelihood with reference to observations of the same study population (11,32). This highlights the need of a comprehensive package addressing the web of causation of these related outcomes.…”

Patterns of opioid use and treatment in a cohort of patients from the Anuradhapura district

“…Despite these legal measures, there has been an increasing tendency among people to use illicit drugs such as opioids and cannabis. A school based health survey in Sri Lanka in 2016 reported that the prevalence of alcohol, smoking, smokeless tobacco and substance abuse was 3.4%, 3.6%, 2.3% and 2.7% respectively (5). In 2016, the average street price of a kilogram of cannabis and opium was rupees 22,000 and rupees 1.5 million respectively (6).…”