Procrastination and Self-Efficacy Among Intravenous Drug Users on a Methadone Maintenance Program in Sari City, Iran, 2013

BACKGROUND Self-efficacy is the belief that one has the ability to implement the behaviors needed to produce a desired effect. There has been growing interest in the role of self-efficacy as a predictor and/or mediator of treatment outcome in a number of domains. Procrastination is a self-regulatory failure, defined as the voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. Behavioral procrastination is a self-sabotage strategy that allows people to shift blame and avoid action; the decisional procrastination strategy is to put off making a decision when dealing with conflicts or choices. Procrastination has a great role in quitting drug addiction. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between procrastination and self-efficacy and other factors among intravenous drug users. PATIENTS AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted on 178 intravenous drug users in the behavioral disease counseling, health center in Sari city, Mazandaran province, Iran, in 2013. The samples were selected through census sampling, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to measure the properties of distribution that depicts a set of data shown as frequency distribution tables, while for the mean and standard deviation, chi-square, Fisher and Spearman-Brown coefficients were used to analyze the data. RESULTS The mean age of the participants was 43 years. Seventy-two percent of them were married and opium was the first drug used. The first substance used in them was 54% of opium, 33% cannabis and 5% alcohol and 79% smoking. The reason of the first drug use in 32% of the subjects was temptation and in 10% a friend's influence. The mean age of the first drug use was 23 years, and the frequency was 2 times per day. All of them had relapse at least once. Seven percent of them currently use other materials (2% crystal, 5% alcohol and opium and crack) both in methadone treatment. Behavioral procrastination in 60.5% of them and decisional procrastination in 62% is from low to average range. There was a significant relationship between relapse and self-efficacy as well as between self-efficacy and the age of the first drug use, drug dose, and procrastination for treatment, marriage, employment and job. Also, the relationship between behavioral procrastination and self-efficacy was significant and inverse. CONCLUSIONS This study found a significant difference between procrastination and self-efficacy as well as other related factors. It is important to include drug users and the society organizations representing them in every stage of the governmental policy and program development process to make them responsive to the needs of the community.