scholarly journals Investigating the Prevalence of Substance Abuse Among Students of Medical Science Universities in the Eighth Macro-region of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol In Press (In Press) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohadeseh Balvardi ◽  
Nasim Dehdashti ◽  
Zahra Imani-Goghary ◽  
Mahnaz Ghaljeh ◽  
Hamideh Bashiri ◽  
...  

Background: The growing trend of substance abuse among students is a serious threat for the health of young adults. Using Network Scale-up (NSU) method Objectives: The present study was designed to indirectly estimate the prevalence of substance abuse among students of medical science universities in the eighth macro-region of Iran to attract government attention to this problem. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 3,900 students from medical science universities in the eighth macro-region of Iran (2300 from Kerman and 1600 from Sistan and Baluchestan provinces) in 2019. The sample size of each university was determined using a multistage non-random sampling approach. The participants were asked to introduce their academic close friends who did high-risk behaviors during last year. Results: Out of 3,900 participants, 1,872 (48%) were males and 2,028 (52%) were females. Students from all academic degrees contributed to this study. The prevalence of alcohol, marijuana, hemp, chewing tobacco, tramadol, methylphenidate, and opium abuse were 20.6% (95% CI: 19.3 - 21.9), 13.5% (CI: 12.4 - 14.5), 4.1% (CI: 3.5 - 4.7), 6.3% (CI: 5.5 - 7.1), 3.1% (CI: 2.6 - 3.7), 6.5% (CI: 5.7 - 7.3), and 4.0% (CI: 3.1 - 4.9), respectively. Also, the prevalence of substance abuse was higher among male students than females. Conclusions: Male students are more at risk for substance abuse. The rates of alcohol and marijuana consumption were higher among students. Training programs are recommended to increase awareness level of young people and the society about disadvantages of these behaviors.

Author(s):  
Dr. Rattiram Meena ◽  
Dr. Rekha Acharya ◽  
Dr. Aarti Acharya

Background: Substance abuse can simply be defined as a pattern of harmful use of any substance for mood-altering purposes. "Substances" can include alcohol and other drugs (illegal or not) as well as some substances that are not drugs at all. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among the migrant workers working in Bikaner Rajasthan, over the time duration of 3 months. All migrant laborers above the age group of 18 years were included in the study. Data was collected from ante-natal register using Predesigned, pretested, validated and structured proforma. Result: In our study prevalence of substance abuse was found to be among 84.00% of participants. 44.8% of the study participants were consuming alcohol, 50.2% of the study participants were chewing tobacco. Conclusion: The result of the present study suggests that substance abuse among migrant workers was very high. Policy makers must pay extra attention to the health of migrants by implementing safety measures and organizing intense behaviour change communication. Keywords: Alcohol, Smoking, immigrant construction workers


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohadeseh Balvardi ◽  
Nasim Dehdashti ◽  
Zahra Imani Ghoghary ◽  
Fatemeh Alavi-Arjas ◽  
Mojtaba Keikha

Abstract Background This study was designed to directly and indirectly estimate the prevalence of sexual behaviors among students of medical science universities in the eighth Macro- region of Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 3900 students from Kerman and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces in 2019. The data were collected using direct (i.e., self-report of their own behaviors) and indirect (NSU: Network scale-up) methods. Results The mean (SD) age of students was 22.45 (3.25). The prevalence of heterosexual intercourse in return for money, extramarital heterosexual intercourse, masturbation, sexting, porn watching, homosexuality and abortion based on NSU method was 6.0%, 8.5%, 19.5%, 9.1%, 22.9%, 2.4% and 0.5% respectively. Corresponding figures of the direct method were 5.7%, 5.8% 18.6%, 9.7%, 23.1%, 2.1% and 0.9% respectively. Conclusion Sexual behaviors like porn watching, masturbation and sexting can harm the youth, family and society. The youth should be given training to correctly react to sexual situations.


Author(s):  
Sadaf Razzak

Background: Penicillin resistance among Staphylococcus aureus commonly encountered in the hospital admitted patients. Detection of antibiotic sensitivity in hospital acquired methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections is important as it has great influence on empiric antibiotic prescription, successful control of infection, prevention of spread of disease and successful patient management. This study aimed to detect the frequency of HA-MRSA from pus samples in a hospital setup with assessment of their antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Microbiology department of Basic Medical Science Institute, JPMC, Karachi from January 2015 until December 2015. Pus samples from surgical site wounds, skin lesions, abscesses from surgical and medical wards and ICUs were collected. According to the standards given by CLSI 2014, MRSA testing of the samples was done and susceptibility testing for antibiotics was performed. Inducible clindamycin resistance was detected by D-Test; E Test. determined MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) for vancomycin. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. Result: Out of the 149 MRSA identified from the pus samples, 106 (71.14%) samples were HA-MRSA. The number of male patients was more than the female patients (67.66%). Out of the 106 HA-MRSA, 91(85.8%) were sensitive to TMP/SMX, 98(92.5%) to rifampicin, 12(11.6%) to gentamicin, 85(80.2%) to tetracycline, 11(10.4%) to erythromycin, 37(34.9%) to clindamycin, 20(18.9%) to ciprofloxacin, 106 (100%) to both vancomycin and linezolid. Conclusion: HA-MRSA showed sensitivity to TMP/SMX and vancomycin making them effective drugs to use in combination in superficial infections. The drug linezolid also showed 100% sensitivity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-574
Author(s):  
Nasreen Akther ◽  
Meherunnessa Begum ◽  
Tamanna Tasmin ◽  
Khondoker Saif Imtiaz ◽  
Ahmed Nawsher Alam ◽  
...  

Background: In Bangladesh there is a scarcity of data on the degree of knowledge amongadolescents about reproductive health. Objective: To assess the awareness about reproductivehealth issues among adolescent girls in a rural area of Bangladesh. Materials and method: Thisdescriptive type of cross sectional study was conducted among 148 adolescent girls who wereselected purposively at PurbaChandara village of Kaliakairthana of Shafipurupazilla of Gazipurdistrict in Bangladesh. A pre-tested semi structured questionnaire was used to collect data byface to face interview. Results: Most of the respondents (76.35%) were within the age group of15-19 years. The average age of their menarche was 14 years. Majority of the respondents 136(91.89%) had history of menstruation and 97 (65.54%) mentioned the duration of menstrualcycle > 7 days. Regarding the hygienic practice during menstruation, majority of them (68.24%)were unhygienic. About knowledge on age at marriage, 131 (88.51%) reportedly mentionedcorrect answer that marriage age is 18 years or more for girls. Regarding the knowledge onfamily planning and family planning methods, most of them (41.89%) had no knowledge.About the infection of reproductive tract, 87 (58.78%) had no knowledge and about half of therespondents (92; 56.79%) had no knowledge about symptoms of STDs. Conclusion: it is ourresponsibility to improve the condition of adolescent girls by giving clear and correct knowledgeon reproductive health which will help them to maintain a good and sound reproductive healthin future. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.19(3) 2020 p.567-574


Author(s):  
Neerja Agarwal ◽  
Nutan Soni ◽  
S. P. Singh ◽  
G. P. Soni

Background: Adolescent age group among girls have been recognized as a special period which signifies the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Menstruation is generally considered as unclean in the Indian society. Most of the adolescent girls had incomplete and inaccurate information about the menstrual physiology and hygiene as reported by many Indian studies. Very few authors have included the detailed aspects of the menstrual practices among adolescent girls.Methods: The current Community based cross sectional study was conducted by department of obstetrics and Gynaecology in connection with department of community medicine, Raipur Institute of Medical Science, Raipur (C.G), India. Among the adolescent school going girls in the field practice area of the Rural Health Unit and Training Centre during study period of 6 month from July 2017 to December 2017. 263 girls from the above mentioned schools, of the 8th and 9th standards, were selected for the study.Results: Majority of the school going adolescent girls belongs to 13 and 14 year of age. 50.95% , 21.67% and 12.93% girls reported that they had their menarche at the age of 13 year, 12 year and 14 year respectively. Majority of the girls were using cloth (49.81%) and only 17.87% were using sanitary napkins. Cleaning of external genitalia was not satisfactory in 32.70% of the girls. Only 58.17% girls used both soap and water for cleaning the genitalia. Pain in abdomen (59.70%) was found to be the most frequent complaint during menstruation.Conclusions: Knowledge on menstruation is sub-optimal and the practices are unacceptable for proper hygiene among study subjects. Menstrual hygiene is an important issue needs to be ensured.


Author(s):  
Umer Maqsood ◽  
Roop Zahra ◽  
Muhammad Zahid Latif ◽  
Hena Athar ◽  
Gul Muhammad Shaikh ◽  
...  

Introduction: A variety of research studies have shown that caffeine usage is highly prevalent among university students and many of them have different perception of its effect on their mental and physical health. These perceptions can influence the intake of caffeine which may lead to its addiction, resulting in serious public health consequences. Aims & Objectives: The objective of the study is to determine the frequency of caffeine consumption and the perception of its effects among university students. Place and duration of study: This study was conducted within 6 months duration, from May 2018 to October 2019 among students of three private universities in Lahore, Pakistan. Material & Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. A sample size of 670 university students was taken and the data were collected from three private universities of Lahore through convenience sampling technique. The perception of effects of caffeine was determined through a pre-validated questionnaire, Caffeine Expectancy Questionnaire (CaffEQ) from consumers and nonconsumers of caffeine. Results: A total of 670 university students participated in the study, out of which, 278 (41.5%) were males and 392 (58.5%) were females. 506 (75.5%) participants were consumer of caffeine, while 164 (24.5%) were non consumer. The occurrence of caffeine consumption was more in males (79.9%) than in females (72.4%). Participants reported that they consume caffeine because it makes them feel more alert (83.4%), they experience caffeine withdrawal without caffeine (83%) and caffeine makes them feel more energetic (80.6%). The perceptions due to which participants don't consume caffeine were that they expect caffeine makes their heartbeat irregular (81.7%), they don't like the way caffeine makes them feel (80.5%) and caffeine makes them irritable (76.8%). Conclusion: The study concludes that male students had more tendencies towards caffeine consumption than females. Perceptions for consuming caffeine were feeling of alertness, experiencing caffeine withdrawal symptoms, feeling of energy and ability to work over long periods of time after having caffeine. The perceptions for not consuming caffeine were irregular heartbeat, bad feelings, irritability, and sleep disturbances.


Author(s):  
Deepak Anand ◽  
Khurshid Parveen ◽  
Gyan Prakash

Background: Providing information about changes during adolescence and sexually transmitted diseases is an important means of promoting healthy development and reducing negative outcomes of social behaviors in adolescents. For this purpose we must know their level of knowledge. So this study was designed to assess the knowledge of male students of class VIth to IXth about issues related to adolescence, their attitude for sexuality related problem and their source of information.Methods: It is a cross-sectional study, sample size was 400. Data was collected between August 2017 and December 2017 by using structured questionnaire.Results: Regarding physical changes 4.5% students have no knowledge, 58.75% have some knowledge and 36.75% have satisfactory knowledge. Whereas 9.75% have no knowledge, 80.75% have some knowledge and 9.50% have satisfactory knowledge regarding sexually transmitted diseases. Only 24.75% students knew legal age for marriage.Conclusions: It was found in study that majority of students do not have satisfactory knowledge and there is a need for targeted education for providing proper knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 555-558
Author(s):  
Katayon Vakilian ◽  
Afsaneh Keramat

Background and Aims: Adolescence is a period of life in which high-risk behaviors, including sexual behaviors, put the adolescents at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. This research aimed at studying the relationship between peers' perception of sexual behavior and adolescents' attitudes and self-efficacy. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study used a multi-stage method to examine 1500 subjects in the universities of Shahroud, Iran. The questionnaires were consisted of sexual abstinence attitude, abstinence self-efficacy and peer subjective norms. To ensure the confidentiality of information, the questionnaire was distributed among 1500 students in six universities anonymously, and students҆ field of study was not mentioned. The collected data was analyzed with descriptive (Mean, Percent) and inferential tests (independent t-test, chi2, and Spearman test) using SPSS 18 software. Results: The mean age of the females was 20.26±1.49, and that of males was 20.32±1.575. 59.3% of male students and 86.8% of female students had poor sexual abstinence to sex before marriage. Moreover, the sexual abstinence self-efficacy of 29% of male students and 13.1% of female students, regarding the sexual abstinence before marriage, was strong. Findings showed that the more one believes in his/her abilities in sexual abstinence, the more they believe that their friends will not be involved in sex Conclusion: It is required to provide the opportunities to learn and correct the socio-emotional skills required for physical and sexual health in relationships through social interactions with peers. In this context, the reproductive health programs need to be prioritized in the youth health programs and schools


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahrzad Mazhari ◽  
Hassan Ziaaddini ◽  
Nozar Nakhaee ◽  
Azam Kermanian

Background: It is generally accepted that due to various reasons, the age of drug abuse prevalence continues to decline, which imposes numerous personal and social dysfunctions. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of drug abuse among adolescents in Kerman, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2,000 10th - 12th-grade students in the academic year of 2017 - 2018 selected by random cluster sampling. Data collection tools included demographic characteristics checklist and alcohol smoking and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST). Data were analyzed using chi-square test. Results: The results showed that the highest prevalence of substance abuse among students was related to tobacco, alcohol, and sedatives. It was also demonstrated that the use of cigarettes, sedatives, cannabis, and amphetamine was significantly higher among male subjects compared to female participants (P < 0.05). Moreover, 16.4, 12.9, and 5.1% of the tobacco, alcohol, and sedative users required low interventions, respectively, whereas 1.5, 0.8, and 0.4% of them required high interventions, respectively. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, there was higher drug abuse prevalence in male students compared to female students. As such, it seems that consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics in adolescents requires serious intervention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Archana Chirag Buch ◽  
Hetal Rathod ◽  
Raj Kamble

Background: E-learning is essential in health science education, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated its utility. Objectives: The study aimed to observe the changes in the scenario of e-learning in Indian Medical Education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 905 undergraduate health science students who agreed with an online survey. A questionnaire was prepared, including sociodemographic details, utilization of commercially available e-learning programs before the pandemic, and the scenario of teaching-learning activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was validated and circulated among medical students of various states across India through social media. Qualitative data were presented as numbers and percentages and quantitative data as mean (SD). Results: Of the 905 students surveyed, 69.17% (n = 626) were female students and 30.83% (n = 279) were male students. Besides, 85% (n = 395) of the students found commercial programs useful in clarifying concepts. Institutional e-learning was mandatory for 71.16% (n = 644) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 644 students for whom e-learning was mandatory, 69.10% (n = 445) found tools like videoconferencing, Google classroom, zoom meetings, etc. useful in flexibility and autonomy. However, 50.47% (n = 325) of the students preferred a combined method of classroom teaching and e-learning, whereas only 9.93% (n = 64) of students preferred only e-learning as a method of teaching. They were satisfied with institutional programs for clarifying concepts (n = 386; 60%) and communication skills (n = 320; 50%). Conclusions: The utility of e-learning has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, students preferred e-learning in combination with traditional teaching, especially in health science courses.


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