The Prevalence of Drug and Alcohol Use among Students of Urmia Universities

Aim: Drug and alcohol use is known as a social harm that inflicts great damage on society. This research aimed to investigate the prevalence rate of drug and alcohol use among students of Urmia University. Method: Present research was a cross-sectional that 450 students from among the students of Azad, State and Payame Noor universities in Urmia city during the 2017-18 academic years were selected through random cluster sampling method. All of them responded to the alcohol, smoking and substance involvement screening test and after removing the incomplete questionnaires, the analysis was performed for 436 questionnaires by using method of Chi-squared test. Results: The findings showed that the prevalence of cigarette, alcohol and drug use was 35/55%, 15/82% and 16/28%, respectively. The prevalence of cigarette and alcohol use in men students significantly was higher than woman students, but the prevalence of drug use there wasn’t significant difference in them. Also, the prevalence of cigarette, alcohol and drug use in students wasn’t significant difference based on age range, educational level and marriage. In addition, the prevalence of cigarette, alcohol and drug use in students of art and urban department significantly was higher than other departments (p<0/05). Conclusion: The results showed that the gender and educational department are effected by common patterns of drug use and put students at risk, therefore the necessity review strategic strategies is apparent by officials and planners.