Prevalence of Substance Abuse/Alcohol Consumption and their Predictors among Patients Admitted in Operating Rooms of a General Educational Hospital, Tehran, Iran

Substance/alcohol abuse is an important public health threat in most countries. Social stigmatization and legal restrictions prevent accurate and direct estimate of prevalence of substance/alcohol abuse in Iran. This study aimed to estimate of the prevalence of alcohol and substance use among Iranian patients who were admitted to operating rooms of a general hospital in Tehran and identified risk factors that may predict alcohol and substance use. This cross-sectional study was conducted among all consecutive patients who were admitted to 16 operating rooms in Vali-e-Asr General Educational Hospital (Tehran, Iran) during March 2014 to September 2015. Data were derived from a medical history form prior to operation by trained nurses who were working in the operating rooms. Among 1136 patients admitted to operating rooms, 105 (28.7%) men and 21 (2.7%) women were substance/alcohol users. The main substance of abuse was opium (57.3%) followed by alcohol consumption (25.6%) and water pipe smoking (14.8%). Cigarette smoking was reported by 110 (30.1%) men and 21 (2.7%) women. Sex, cigarette smoking and family history of alcohol and substance abuse predicted 42.3% of the variance in substance abuse/alcohol consumption. Substance use, especially opium, alcohol, water pipe tobacco and cigarette smoking were found to be significantly high particularly among male patients. Being a man, current cigarette smoking and having a first-degree family member who had abused substances should be considered when planning preventive or therapeutic programs.