Background: The prevalence of psychoactive substance use is increasing globally, and university students are not left behind. Self-report, using questionnaire has been the common method of assessing substance use amongst the students' population. This study assessed the use of psychoactive substance use among the students at university of Ilorin, Nigeria. Study about the extent of use of psychoactive substances by students may be very important in planning better healthcare for the students on campus.
Methods: Two thousand five hundred and fifty (2550) students at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria completed a questionnaire based on the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for student substance-use surveys. Substances investigated in the survey were alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, strong and mild stimulants, hypno-sedatives, cocaine, opiates, organic solvents, and hallucinogens. The self-administered questionnaire had been used in similar studies in Nigeria, Ilorin, and amongst students. Cross tabulation, chi-square statistics, and student t-test were determined using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Results: The reported lifetime and current prevalence of the substances were: tobacco, 11.5% and 4.6%; alcohol, 38.3% and 15.2%; cannabis, 9.0% and 3.8%; stimulants 32.6% and 15.3%; sedatives 11.7%, 4.8%, opiates 25.3% and 7.2%; cocaine was 4.6% and 1.5%; Hallucinogenic substances lifetime prevalence was 6.7% and a current prevalence of 1.4%. The lifetime prevalence for solvents use was 7.6% while current use was 2.5%. While the alcohol prevalence was higher than the national figure the opiates use revealed an elevated rate than the national.
Conclusion: Prevalence figures for psychoactive substance use by the students at university of Ilorin are comparable to what obtains in previous studies and to the national figures with slightly lower figures for alcohol. However, the use of opiates calls for concern. More efforts need to be expeditiously channelled towards education of our students to curtail the seeming upward trend in the use of opiates.
Key words: Self-Report, Psychoactive Substances, Students
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