Gaurav Uppal, Prashanth Peethala, G. Gopalakrishnan
BACKGROUND According to world drug report, youth from urban settings have been topping the charts for drug abuse. The alarming rate of drug abuse and especially the increase of drug abuse among youngsters has had detrimental effects on the society. There have been very few studies indicating whether the same facts hold true in rural settings too or not. Our study aimed at studying clinical details of substance abuse in adolescents and young adults in a fixed population rural Bangalore. MATERIALS AND METHODS It was a cross sectional study conducted at Nandaguri village, Hoskote Taluq, rural Bangalore, Karnataka. 175 houses, assigned to the community health center, were marked and door to door survey was done. Convenient and purposive sampling were used. The study participants were screened with WHO ASSIST questionnaire. RESULTS 175 individuals between the age groups of 13-30 were screened. 86.9% were males and 13.1% were females. 62.9% of the individuals screened had some substance abuse. 90% of the population screened satisfied lifetime use of substance. CONCLUSION The sample was comparable in terms of age group, gender, type of substance, pattern of usage of substance with the other studies. The study also found significant association between male gender and usage of substance. However, another uniqueness was that there was no significant association between the substances prevalent in the Rural Bangalore and type of family and educational status.
