Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Department of Community Medicine, Nepal Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal.
JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2021 Jul 1;59(238):571-576. doi: 10.31729/jnma.6525.
Psychoactive substance use among medical students is common. This may not only pose a threat to their health and academic performance but may have medico-legal and ethical ramifications. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of six psychoactive substances (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines, opioids) among second year and third year medical students.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was done in a medical college. Whole sampling was done and ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference Number: 54-074/075). The study was conducted from May 2018 to June 2018. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire modified and adapted from World Health Organization's guidelines for student substance use survey was used to collect data from second year and third year medical students. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 16.0 was used for analysis. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data.
Out of 226 total respondents, 95 (42.0%) (35.55- 48.45 at 95% Confidence Interval) reported current use of one or more psychoactive substances. Most frequently used substance was alcohol with current use prevalence of 87 (38.5%), followed by smoking 39 (17.3%) and cannabis 27 (11.9%). Cocaine, benzodiazepines and opioids were the least consumed substances with current use prevalence of 2 (0.9%) each.
Almost half of the students were currently using one or more psychoactive substances which is concerning, and therefore strategies must be adopted to alleviate such use.
医学生使用精神活性物质的现象较为普遍。这不仅对他们的健康和学业表现构成威胁，还可能带来医学、法律和伦理方面的影响。本研究旨在了解大二和大三医学生使用六种精神活性物质（酒精、烟草、大麻、可卡因、苯二氮䓬类药物、阿片类药物）的流行情况。
在一所医学院进行描述性横断面研究。采用整群抽样方法，研究获得机构审查委员会的伦理批准（参考编号：54-074/075）。研究于 2018 年 5 月至 6 月进行。采用世界卫生组织学生物质使用调查指南修改和改编的半结构式自填式问卷，从大二和大三医学生中收集数据。采用社会科学统计软件包 16.0 进行数据分析。计算了 95%置信区间的点估计值，以及二分类数据的频率和比例。
在 226 名总受访者中，有 95 名（42.0%）（95%置信区间为 35.55-48.45）报告目前使用一种或多种精神活性物质。最常使用的物质是酒精，目前使用率为 87 例（38.5%），其次是吸烟 39 例（17.3%）和大麻 27 例（11.9%）。可卡因、苯二氮䓬类药物和阿片类药物的使用率最低，分别为 2 例（0.9%）。
近一半的学生目前正在使用一种或多种精神活性物质，这令人担忧，因此必须采取策略来减轻这种使用情况。
