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. 2025 May 15;17(5):e84164.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.84164. eCollection 2025 May.

Screening of Substance Abuse Among the General Population in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Ayat ElZyat  1 , Sadia Sultan  1 , Aminah Altakroni  2 , Ghyidaa Khan  2 , Layan Alharbi  2 , Alaa Magdy  1
Affiliations

Screening of Substance Abuse Among the General Population in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Ayat ElZyat et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances. Substance abuse is a pattern of problematic use that causes substantial impairment or distress, such as engaging in risky use or failing to meet important duties. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1st January 2024 to 1st April 2024, to assess the prevalence of substance abuse and its associated factors among 360 participants of the general population. The validated Arabic version of the Drug Abuse Screening Test-10 (DAST-10) by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the prevalence of substance abuse. Results The DAST-10 scale showed that the majority of participants reported no problems (56%), over one-third reported low-level problems (35%), while only 6% and 3% reported moderate and substantial levels, respectively. The multivariate regression analysis to predict substance abuse among the studied participants showed that smoking and having a close friend with substance abuse positively affect substance abuse, while sharing life aspects with the family is negatively associated with substance abuse. Conclusion Substance abuse was prevalent at low, moderate, and substantial levels in the general population of Saudi Arabia (total 44%). Substance abuse was more prevalent among the male population. Specific risk factors such as smoking and peer influence in the form of having a close friend with substance abuse were significantly contributing to substance abuse (P-value <0.05). These findings align with research indicating that familial factors, such as childhood maltreatment, parental substance abuse, and family socioeconomic status, contribute to increased substance use.

Keywords: dast-10; diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders dsm-v; drug abuse; drug addiction; early detection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Human subjects: Consent for treatment and open access publication was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Fakeeh Institutional Review Board (F-IRB) issued approval FIRB-24-0009. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Screening for any substance abuse by DAST-10 among the studied participants (n=360).
Categories are expressed as n(%); DAST-10: Drug Abuse Screening Test-10
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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