Abstract

Poonam Kumari Yadav41476* and Rejina Parajuli41477

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge regarding drug abuse among the school students.

Materials and methods: A descriptive cross sectional study design was used. 106 samples were selected randomly from grade IX and X of Shree Janak Secondary School. Self-administered structured knowledge questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics was used to calculate percentage and frequency. The chi square test was used to find association between selected demographic variable and level of knowledge. P value of 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: 99.1% of the respondents heard about drug abuse, 97.9% said drug abuse is bad for health, 96.2% said Gaja is commonly available, 51.9% said high chance of getting HIV with drug abuse, 67% said financial burden as cause, 60.4% said drug abuser performed poorly at school work, 71.7% said awareness program as the way to prevent from drug abuse and 26.4% said counselling. Similarly, 52.8% said rehabilitation is the way to treat drug abuse, 88.7% said dependence to drug as the long term complication of drug abuse. Majority 57.5% had poor, 41.5% have adequate and 0.9% had good level of knowledge regarding drug abuse.

Conclusion: Half of the respondents had poor knowledge regarding drug abuse and level of knowledge is significantly higher for Brahmin/Chhetri and poor for Janajati, Dalit and Madhesi.