TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - Cannabis and amphetamine use and its psychosocial correlates among school-going adolescents in Ghana JO - Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health A1 - Oppong Asante, Kwaku SP - e33 EP - e33 VL - 13 IS - N2 - BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of cannabis and amphetamine use and to determine its associated factors among school-going adolescents in Ghana.

METHOD: The 2012 Ghanaian Global School-based Student Health Survey on 3632 adolescents aged 11-19 years (mean = 15.1 years; SD = 1.4) was used. Participants for this study were sampled from selected junior (JHS) and senior high schools (SHS) in all the 10 administrative regions of Ghana. A two-stage cluster sampling design was used to select 25 senior high schools to represent all the 10 regions of Ghana. Information was collected with a self-administered structured questionnaire that contained information on demographics, alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, violence, and a range of other health-related behaviours.

RESULTS: The result showed that past-month cannabis use was 5.3% and lifetime amphetamine use was 7.1% among students. In multivariate model, after controlling for other variables, school truancy and current cigarette smoking were associated with both past-month cannabis and lifetime amphetamine use. The number of close friends was associated with only past-month cannabis use. School environment factors (bullying victimisation and having been attacked) and parental substance use were associated with lifetime amphetamine use.

CONCLUSION: This study identified a number of risk factors, including parental substance use and various risk behaviours, for both past-month cannabis and lifetime amphetamine use. School-based health intervention programmes should be developed taking into consideration the risk factors associated with cannabis and amphetamine use among school-going adolescents.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1753-2000 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13034-019-0293-0 ID - ref1 ER -