CONCORDANCE BETWEEN SELF-REPORT PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCE USE AND URINE DRUG TEST AMONG STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, NIGERIA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

The prevalence of psychoac ve substance use is increasing globally, and university students are not le behind. Self-report, using ques onnaire has been the common method of assessing substance use amongst the students' popula on. This is, however, fraught with problems of poor repor ng and inten onal lie. Urine Drug Test (UDT) is a biochemical method that tests the recent use of substances either as a direct test of the psychoac ve substance or its metabolite(s). This cross-sec onal study aims to study the concordance between self-report and UDT amongst students' popula on. Two thousand five hundred and fi y students of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria completed a ques onnaire based on the World Health Organiza on (WHO) guidelines for student substance-use surveys. Substances inves gated in the survey were alcohol, cigare es, cannabis, strong and mild s mulants, hypno-seda ves, cocaine, opiate, organic solvents, and hallucinogens. A subset of the total popula on, made of three hundred and two of the students were, subsequently, selected to par cipate in the urine drug test using a commercially available 12-items UDT kit. The reported life me and current prevalence of the substances were: tobacco, 11.5% and 3.7%; alcohol, 38.4% and 15.4%; cannabis, 9.0% and 3.8%; s mulants 32.5% and 15.8%; seda ves 11.7%, 4.8%, opioids 25.3% and 7.6%; cocaine was 4.7% and 1.6%; Hallucinogenic substances life me prevalence was 6.6% and a current prevalence of 1.4%. The life me prevalence for solvent use was 7.4% while current use was 1.6%. There was discordance between the outcome of the self-report and the result of UDT. Many respondents who tested posi ve for one substance or the other did not self-report ever using the substance. In conclusion, there is discordance between self-report and results of the UDT. Many students who did not report ever use of psychoac ve substances tested posi ve for substances. This study further emphasized the superiority of UDT over self-report for psychoac ve substances among university students. We recommend that whenever suspicion of possible psychoac ve substance use is made among university students, UDT should be the method of assessment. UDT is equally encouraged in school clinics and sports centres.