Prevalence and psychosocial correlates of illicit drug use among school-going adolescents in Thailand

Illicit drug use is a relevant public health issue in Thailand. The assessment of the prevalence of illicit drug use among adolescents may guide policies and programmes aimed at reducing illicit drug use among this age group. Using data from the Thailand Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS) 2008, the researchers assessed the prevalence of illicit drug and its associated factors among adolescents (N=2758). Overall, the prevalence of lifetime illicit drug use was 6.0% (11.1% males and 1.3% females). Variables positively associated with the outcome in multivariable analysis were male gender (Odds Ratio (OR)=3.70; 95% Confidence Interval (CI)= 1.89-10.98), current smoking (OR=4.95, CI=2.20-11.14), current alcohol use (OR=6.33, CI=2.75-14.59) and multiple sexual partners (OR=5.19, CI=2.40-11.24). Efforts to prevent and control illicit drug use may need to address a cluster of risk behaviours including cigarette smoking, alcohol use and sexual risk behaviour.