PREVALENCE OF DRUG ABUSE AMONG AND FACTORS INFLUENCING DRUG USE IN URMIA’S MEDICAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Entry to the university is a gigantic change in the students’ lives and the increase
in the assignments and homework pressures, the other peer students’ influence, the increase in popularity
and easy access to the drugs causes them to become inclined to the drug use. The psychological health
and hygiene of the students as the elites of the society is among the worries and concerns of the planners
and decision-makers in a macro level. Thus, the current descriptive-analytical research aims at
determining the factors contributing to the drug use in Urumia’s Medical Sciences University.
Materials & Methods: The present cross-sectional study has been carried out based on a descriptiveanalytical method. The study sample volume includes 538 Urmia’s Medical Sciences University
undergraduate students. The sampling was undertaken in multiple stages. To gather the required
information, a researcher-made questionnaire was administered to the study subjects. The face validity
of the questionnaire was conducted via inquiring six specialist professors for their corrective ideas and
the questionnaire’s reliability was determined by taking advantage of test-retest method. The data were
analyzed by means of SPSS software, ver.23. Descriptive statistical tests were applied to characterize
the data and chi-square test was utilized to investigate the relationship between the various variables
exerting an influence on the drug abuse.
Results: The results indicated that 28.3% of the university students had addictions to cigarettes and
narghile, 12.5% of them were addicted to alcoholic drinks and 14.7% were drug abusers. Among the
factors influencing the drug use, affective failures (57.7%), psychological-mental pressures (54.9%),
feeling the lack of parents’ love (36%), loneliness (32.6%), relieving pain (30%), seeking pleasure
(26.8%) and purposelessness (25%) were most prevalent. Moreover, Chi-square test showed a
significant relationship between smoking and hookah with gender and residence status, between alcohol
consumption with gender, family economic status, residency and field of study, and between addictive
drug abuse and economic status of the family, residency status, and field of study (p <0.05).
Conclusion: According to the drug use and fact that the psychological-mental factors play a
considerable role in the university students’ tendencies towards drug abuse, the education authorities
and experts are hereby suggested to make comprehensive plans regarding the control of factors giving
rise to the drug abuse as a result of which the university students’ mental-psychological health can be
enhanced