The peculiarities of use of addictive substances among students during 2005–2006

Antanas Goštautas, Romualdas Povilaitis¹, Ina Pilkauskienė, Irayda Jakušovaitė², Svetlana Statkevičienė¹

Vytautas Magnus University, ¹Lithuanian University of Agriculture, ²Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: students; prevalence of drug use; frequency of the usage; tobacco; ethanol.

Summary. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and the frequency of the usage of alcohol (ethanol), tobacco, and other addictive substances and the amounts of such substances consumed among male and female students.

The study was performed by applying a questionnaire consisting of 26 standard questions for the evaluation of the respondents’ health and health-related behavior (A. Goštautas, 1999). This article analyzes students’ answers to the questions related to their attitude towards smoking, consumption of alcoholic beverages, the consumed amounts of addictive substances, and the frequency of the usage of such substances. One question was dedicated to the consumption of addictive substances other than tobacco or ethanol. The study included 1475 first- through fourth-year students (713 males and 762 females) from five faculties of the Lithuanian University of Agriculture. This comprised 70% of all students targeted for the inquiry.

The obtained results showed that more males, compared to females, used ethanol (89.7% and 79.7%, respectively), smoked (54.7% and 29.1%, respectively), and had tried other addictive substances (35.0% and 16.7%, respectively). More males than females every day or several times per week used ethanol (45.7% and 18.2%, respectively), smoked (43.5% and 29.2%, respectively), and had tried other addictive substances more than once (22.8% and 6.3%, respectively). The prevalence of the usage of ethanol, tobacco, and other addictive substances changed little throughout the four years of studies. The indices of the usage of addictive substances among students were similar to those in the general population.

Correspondence to I. Jakušovaitė, Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Kaunas University of Medicine, A. Mickevičiaus 9, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: irjak@takas.lt

Received 9 August 2006, accepted 18 December 2006