Prevalence of cigarette, alcohol, marijuana and tramadol use among senior high school students in the Bekwai Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated substance use (alcohol, cigarette, marijuana and tramadol) in terms of prevalence among senior high school students in the Bekwai Municipality. A descriptive survey design espousing the quantitative approach was used with a sample of 475 respondents. Respondents were selected using the multistage sampling procedure (census, stratified and systematic). An adapted Youth Risk Behaviour (1999) questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.91 was used to collect the data. The data was analysed using frequencies and percentages, Mann-Whitney U test, and One-Way ANOVA. The study results revealed that alcohol, cigarette, tramadol, and marijuana were prevalent but low among the respondents. The study showed no statistical significant difference in substance use on the basis of gender and age of respondents. It is recommended that community based outreach programmes such as substance use disorder management be brought to educate the youth. This could be organized by Ghana Health Service with support from interested stakeholders such as Non-Governmental Organizations and counsellors to sensitize students on the best attitudes towards eradication of substance use among them. The success of programme will help them understand how negatively substance may be to their lives generally.