Perception and Prevalence of Substance Use among Undergraduate Medical Students in Mumbai

Introduction: Substance Use is a major public health concern due its potency to lead to long term addiction and its effects on an individual’s health. Medical students follow general young adult patterns and are not exempt from the consequences of substance use, which may include injuries, work and social impairment, violence, risky sexual behaviour, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and death. In lieu of the same, it is crucial that the perception towards and prevalence of Substance Use in Undergraduate Medical Students be assessed.

Objectives: To study the Perception and Prevalence of Substance Use among Undergraduate Medical Students in Mumbai.

Method: This study was conducted among Undergraduate Medical Students in Mumbai with help of a prestructured online questionnaire. A total of 250 participants were included in the study. The Data were entered and analysed using SPSS (Version 20). Descriptive statistics was done thereon.

Results: Majority (70.3%) agreed that substance abuse was a common problem in medical students and felt that Alcohol (71.8%) and Tobacco (20.9%) were the most commonly used substances.91.3 % perceived that substance use was most common in the age group 18-30 years and 52.9% felt that male gender had a tendency to lean towards substance use. Prevalence of substance use was 68.8%.

Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of substance use amongst medical students. An integrated approach involving multiple stakeholders is integral to target the same.