Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 26;19(3):e0297163. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297163. eCollection 2024.
Although the use of illicit drugs is common among young people, limited data exists on the use of illicit drugs among adolescent boys and young men (ABYM). We assessed the use of tobacco, marijuana and khat among ABYM to inform the design of harm-reduction interventions.
This secondary analysis uses data from a formative study conducted among 2,500 ABYM across the five divisions of Kampala between July and August 2020. Survey questions were adopted from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey and Global School-based Student Health Survey. We computed proportions of ABYM that had ever used any form of tobacco or marijuana or khat in the past year and the proportion that had used any of these products in the past 30 days (i.e. 'current users'). In a sub-group analysis, we assessed if any patterns existed between ABYM's use of illicit drugs and selected parental attention attributes.
Of 2,500 ABYM, 47.3% (n = 1,182) were aged 15-19 years. Overall, 16.4% (n = 410) reported past-year use of tobacco products while 11.6% (n = 289) and 10.5% (n = 263) reported past-year use of marijuana and khat, respectively. Current use of any illicit drugs was higher among past-year khat (46%, n = 133) and marijuana users (36.9%, n = 97) than past-year tobacco users (4%, n = 17). Current use of any illicit drugs was higher among out-of-school than in-school ABYM and increased with increasing age and education levels. However, parental attention was lower among out-of-school than in-school ABYM and decreased with increasing age and education levels.
Use of illicit drugs is common among ABYM and increased with age and education levels but parental attention among current illicit drug users decreased with increasing age and education levels. These findings suggest that interventions intended to improve parental attention among illicit drug users may help to reduce the prevalence of illicit drug use among ABYM.
尽管年轻人普遍存在使用非法药物的情况，但关于青少年男孩和年轻男性（ABYM）使用非法药物的数据有限。我们评估了 ABYM 使用烟草、大麻和恰特草的情况，以便为减少伤害干预措施的设计提供信息。
本二次分析使用了 2020 年 7 月至 8 月期间在坎帕拉五个区的 2500 名 ABYM 进行的一项形成性研究的数据。调查问题采用了全球青年烟草调查和全球学校学生健康调查的问题。我们计算了过去一年中曾经使用过任何形式的烟草或大麻或恰特草的 ABYM 的比例，以及过去 30 天内使用过这些产品的比例（即“当前使用者”）。在亚组分析中，我们评估了 ABYM 使用非法药物与某些父母关注属性之间是否存在任何模式。
在 2500 名 ABYM 中，47.3%（n=1182）年龄在 15-19 岁之间。总体而言，16.4%（n=410）报告过去一年使用过烟草制品，11.6%（n=289）和 10.5%（n=263）分别报告过去一年使用过大麻和恰特草。过去一年使用过恰特草（46%，n=133）和大麻（36.9%，n=97）的 ABYM 中，当前使用任何非法药物的比例均高于过去一年使用烟草制品的 ABYM（4%，n=17）。校外 ABYM 比校内 ABYM 更有可能当前使用任何非法药物，并且随着年龄和教育水平的提高而增加。然而，校外 ABYM 的父母关注度低于校内 ABYM，并且随着年龄和教育水平的提高而降低。
非法药物的使用在 ABYM 中很常见，并且随着年龄和教育水平的提高而增加，但当前非法药物使用者的父母关注度随着年龄和教育水平的提高而降低。这些发现表明，旨在提高非法药物使用者父母关注度的干预措施可能有助于降低 ABYM 中非法药物使用的流行率。
