Demographic Characteristics about Substance Abuse on Preparatory Schools Students' Knowledge in AL-Sader City/ Baghdad

Substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs) are the major concerns of today’s world. It is impairing human will and vanishing his mind in such a way that pushes them to commit crimes. Therefore, substance use, of which every developed and developing community suffer, is considered one of the most complicated problems that face the community which is not less dangerous than (UNODC, 2018), Substance use/abuse and related disorders are a national health problem. More than 15 million Americans are dependent on alcohol, and 500,000 are between the ages of 9 and 12 years. Almost 7 million persons are binge drinkers between the ages of 12 and 20 years—under the legal age limit for drinking in most states. Five thousand deaths occur each year—motor vehicle accidents, homicide, suicide, injuries—due to alcohol in persons under age 21 (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2019).

Substance use disorders and related disorders are a national health problem. More than 16.6 million adult Americans and 697,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years have an alcohol use disorder. Of adults (age 18 years or older), 14% report binge drinking in the past month. Other statistics include the following: nearly 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes each year; alcohol related death is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States; and 30% of driving fatalities are alcohol related National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism )NIAAA, 2015).

Drug and alcohol abuse costs business and industry an estimated $100 billion annually. Alcoholism alone accounts for 500 million lost days of work. Up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of workplace injuries are linked to alcoholism and alcohol consumption. Estimates of motor vehicle fatalities related to alcohol are 50% (Akhavan,2014).

Several factors are behind substance use, such as low socioeconomic status, unstructured time with peers, parental influences, psychosocial factors and community factor ( Alhyas,2015).

Worldwide, 3 million deaths result from the harmful use of alcohol annually. Alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions. Absenteeism at work is higher for employees who have alcoholrelated problems, and they use more health benefits as well (World Health Organization, 2019), Substance use disorders (SUD) are significant health concern worldwide. Substance use is inveterate trouble which is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. These troubles also account for important health care employment and medical costs (Maqbool et al., 2019), Substance use disorders and intemperance represent universal public health problem of substantial socioeconomic inclusion (Whiteford, et al.,2015), Substance use problems are associated with capitalize health retro gradation, weakness and death due to impacts and exceed (McLellan, 2017).

There is growing concern about the effects of conflict and wars on substance use in Iraq (Al Hemiery et al., 2017), Many clinical studies signalize that there is an association between substance use and personality troubles with guide that personality pathology may affect both an etiology and course of substance use troubles (Moran, et al., 2015).

Method

A descriptive design was carried out from 27th February 2021 through 29th July 2021 to achieve the objectives of the present study. A nonprobability sample (selective) consisted of 50 students that consist (25) male (25) females were from Preparatory Schools students' Knowledge about Substances Abuse at AL-Sader city / Baghdad.. The researcher prepared a scale composed of 20 questions to students' Knowledge about Substances Abuse. include  general information about age , gander , fathers and mothers occupations  ,type of study  ,  monthly income  ,scholastic stage ,residential area, Smoker family member, Smoker friend, Try alcohol, Alcohol  drinker among family, Friend alcohol drinker, Try drug use, Drug user among family, Friend drug user. To achieve the objectives of the study. The reliability of these scales was evaluated by computing Cronbach Alpha Correlation coefficients using the split-half method. To ensure the validity of the rankings, method and procedure proposed to be carried out during the study, ten experts of different.

Result:

Table1: Distribution of the Sample According to their Socio-demographic Characteristics

Table 2: Overall Assessment of Students’ Knowledge about Smoking, Alcohol, and Substance abuse

Discussion

According to Table (1) The results of the study showed that the largest percentage of ages were at age group (15-17). The results of the study showed that the 50% both boys and girls participants, Concerning to the occupational status of their fathers this study show that 44% of the sample had government employee  while 30% of sample had fathers free work , Concerning to the occupational status of their mothers this study show that 66% of the sample had housewife , The results of this study showed that the majority of participants in the study are had Owned house 32% for the study . The result also show that 72% for the study group  of their family smoking cigarettes , And show 28% of the sample say yes that they have friends smoking cigarettes. Concerning alcohol drinking 10% of the study sample Try to drink alcohol, and (12% for the sample have one in their family drinking alcohol, while 8% of them had friends drinking alcohol . According to Table (2) Regarding drugs or substance abuse the findings of present study depicted that nobody use drugs or substance abuse, and (5%) of them try to use it, while 2% for study group had families using drugs or substance abuse, while 8% of them had friends drug uses. Concerning to the students’ knowledge about substance abuse the study show 66% of the sample had fair level .

Conclusions

This study concludes a considerable lack of student knowledge about substance abuse in Preparatory Schools in AL-Sader city/ Baghdad.

Ethical Considerations Compliance With

Ethical Guidelines

The questionnaire was approved based on the official permission granted by the Russafa Governorate Education Directorate to ensure their approval and to facilitate the researcher’s task by entering special education schools and applying the questionnaire to teachers after clarifying the purpose of the study to them and obtaining their approval.

Funding

This research did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors.

Author’s Contributions

Study concept: Dr. Kareem. R. Sachit; Writing the original draft: Ihab habeeb; Data collection: Data analysis: Ihab habeeb, Reviewing the final edition: All authors.

Disclosure Statement: The authors reported no conflict of interest. Thanks and appreciation to the Directorate of Education of Russafa Governorate for providing the opportunity for researchers to complete the research, as well as for the special students who answered the research questionnaire.

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous referees for their useful suggestions.

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