The use of psychoactive substances among adolescent students in an area inthe south-west of China

Aim. To survey drug/psychoactive substance use among adolescent students in a south-west province of China. Design. A cluster sample was drawn from th is province of nine districts or cities. Each district/city provided two sc hools from grade 11 senior high school, A total of 18 schools were selected randomly. Findings. A total of 2649 students completed this self-report qu estionnaire, mean age 17.1 +/- 0.9 years. The response rate was 92.7-95.6% for each of the specific substances or drugs. The 'life-time prevalences of regular substance use' (at least 15 times during in any one month) were, i n rank order of prevalence: tobacco 6.3%, non-steroid anti-inflammatory dru gs (NSAID) 2.9%, alcohol 2.9%, solvent 0.3%, sedative/hypnotic 0.2% and can nabis 0.04%. The life-time prevalences of at least some use were: alcohol 6 6.1%, NSAID 59.3%, tobacco 27.4%, sedative/hypnotic 5.2%, heroin 3.1%, solv ents 2.8%, amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) 0,7% and cannabis 0.3%. The 'p revalences of current regular use'( at least 15 times in the past month) we re: tobacco 4.2%, alcohol 1.6%, NSAID 0.8%, sedative/hypnotic 0.1%, solvent s 0.1% and cannabis 0.1%. The 'prevalences of current use at any level' wer e: alcohol 15.2%, NSAID 9.6%, tobacco 7.1%, sedative/hypnotic 0.5%, solvent s 0.4%, cannabis 0.1%, heroin 0.1%, and ATS 0.04%. The median age at onset substance use was between 10.7 and 13.4 9.6%. Conclusions. Drug misuse has appeared among teenage students in this area. The most widely used substanc es were alcohol and cigarettes. The rates of solvent, tobacco and alcohol u se among males were substantially higher than in females.