Alcohol and drug usage of undergraduate students in Gaziantep University Central Campus

Abstract

Aim: Alcohol and drug consumption is a growing public health problem in the world and in our country. Therefore, we aim to study alcohol and drug usage of undergraduate students in Gaziantep University Central Campus and to determine the factors that affect it. Material and Method: To determine the change of the alcohol and drug usage among the first and last year university students, all 1352 first-year students and all 865 last year students within whole departments and without any sample selection had been participated in the survey of this study. A questionnaire including 39 personal and alcohol and drug usage related questions had been completed by the students in their class. SPSS package program had been used for data evaluation. Results: We determined that 56.8% of the men and 44.0% of the women had consumed alcohol at least once; 8.6% of the men and 2.1% of the women had used drug at least once. We found out that 65.5% of the last year students and 43.2% of the first-year students had consumed alcohol at least once; 8.3% of the last year students and 4.6% of the first-year students had used drug at least once. Based on the results of logistic regression analysis, current alcohol consumption of students has increased 15.152 times by the effect of alcohol consumption in their close circle, 1.898 times in the last year of the university and 1.704 times as being a male. The current drug usage has increased 66.667 times by the effect of drug usage in their close circle, 4.167 times related with current alcohol consumption and 3.049 times due to school failure. Discussion: The same as all over the world, alcohol and drug consumption is one of the main problems both among university students and in our country. Since the alcohol and drug consumption rates in the last year were higher than the first year, it’s thought that the university life has an increasing effect on alcohol and drug consumption. Thus, to reduce alcohol and drug consumption rates of students, we suggest to give them health and addiction-related trainings and help them in all kinds of problems. Primarily families, health professionals and community have the responsibility for the prevention of the addiction.