Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan;47(1):25-31.
doi: 10.1177/02537176241234764. Epub 2024 Mar 31.

Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Substance Use and Its Determinants Among College Students in a Coastal Town of South India

Shyamashree Das  1 , Veena G Kamath  1 , Divya Arvind Prabhu  1 , Samir Kumar Praharaj  2 , Akhilesh Kumar Pandey  1
Affiliations

Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Substance Use and Its Determinants Among College Students in a Coastal Town of South India

Shyamashree Das et al. Indian J Psychol Med. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Substance use among adolescents is increasing at an astounding rate globally posing a major threat to the health system and the society. This problem can be tackled if the adolescents are equipped with knowledge and positive attitude towards substance use. This study was an attempt to assess the knowledge and attitude towards substance use based on consumption and its determinants among college students.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 2,170 college students aged 18 years and above in Udupi taluk for two years using a predesigned questionnaire. Factors associated with knowledge and attitude towards substance use were identified using multiple logistic regression.

Results: The mean age of study participants was 19 ± 1.38 years with 39(1.8%) of them indulging in substance use. Around 434(20%) and 1866(86%) of them had good knowledge and positive attitude towards substance use respectively. Though the substance users had better knowledge as compared to non-users, attitude was better in the non-users. Paternal education, affluent socioeconomic status and usage of substances significantly correlated with knowledge. Gender and substance usage were independent predictors of attitude.

Conclusions: The present study reveals that substance use is low among college students in Udupi taluk. Though knowledge about substance use is better in users as compared to non-users, the attitude is better in non-users. This calls for an urgent need to have health education sessions in the respective colleges with collaborative efforts of parents, teachers, and psychological counsellors to address the ill effects of substance.

Keywords: Awareness; adolescent; drugs; view point.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. National Institutes of Health. Drug misuse and addiction. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addictio... (2020, accessed 25 November 2022. ).
    1. United Nations: Office on Drugs and Crime. UNODC World Drug Report 2022 highlights trends on cannabis post-legalization, environmental impacts of illicit drugs, and drug use among women and youth. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/press/releases/2022/June/unodc-world-drug-re... (accessed 25 November 2022. ).
    1. Amberkar A, Chaddha RK, Khandelwal SK, et al.. Magnitude of substance use in India 2019: executive summary. [cited 2022. Nov 25]. https://socialjustice.gov.in/writereaddata/UploadFile/Survey%20Report636....
    1. Arora M. Substance abuse: Impact on Adolescents in India. Project Udaya: Population Council. https://www.projectudaya.in/substance-abuse-impact-on-adolescents-in-india/ (accessed 14 December 2022. ).
    1. Remesh Kumar R. Substance use: focus on adolescent health. Indian Pediatr, 2022; 59(2): 103–104. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources