KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION AND PRACTICE OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE AMONG STUDENTS OF EDO STATE UNIVERSITY, UZAIRUE, EDO STATE

Background: Substance abuse has been rapidly on the rise in the last decade particularly amongst teenagers and adolescence also more in tertiary institutions. It is now posing a significant public health concern with implications for the individual and broader societal issues. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the knowledge, perception and practice of substance abuse among students of Edo state university Uzaiure Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed. Multistage sampling was used to select 280 participants from the institution. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire comprising sections on knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and socio-demographic characteristics. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 was used for data analysis, including descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and mean score calculations. Results: About 280 participants were selected for this study with the ages of the respondents ranged between 15 to 27 years with mean age of 20.2 ±2.2 years. A large majority of the respondents (about 86.4%) a knowledge of substance abuse, (51.8%) noted that peer pressure is the most paramount factor for substance abuse, and about (48.2%) stated that substance abuse affects school performance about (63.6%) have taken alcohol at some point (51.8%) have used taken stimulants while (56.6%) who took alcohol did so within the ages of 16 to 21 years similar with the intake of stimulants and about (38.6%) tried weed edibles making about (31.8%) of the first-time users of weed edibles occurred between ages 18 and 24 years making that alcohol stimulants and weed edibles the most used amongst the students, (68.9%) source the substances from fellow students within the institution , while about (78.6%) stated that they get the substances from friends implying the influence of social circles in substance distribution, (28.2%) stated that they have a family member who takes substance (78.9%) lived with their parents during their developmental years while about (82.5%) did not have to contribute to the family income during their developmental age. Conclusion: The study revealed that a good majority of students had good knowledge of substance abuse and practice of substance abuse, however they have poor perception towards substance abuse. To improve this certain recommendation can be made such as creation of awareness programs and collaboration with law enforcement agencies can be made as to target healthier behaviors that support students in making good decisions to their overall health. Keywords: Substance abuse, knowledge, developmental, practice, perception, students, Edo state university Uzaiure.