Attitude Toward Substance Use Among Egyptian Medical Students

Objectives: Addictive behavior affecting human health is on the rise among adolescents. Cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, and illegal drug use are common among university students. Hence, the aim of this study was assessment of the attitude toward substance use and its predictors among final year medical students, faculty of medicine, Cairo University. Materials and Methods: In total, 200 students were randomly chosen during their final year of study. Participants were subjected to semistructured questions that assessed demographics and smoking status of the students, attitude toward substance abuse questionnaire, and Sensation-seeking Scale (SSS). Results: Male individuals comprised 61% compared with 39% of female individuals, and the age for both male students and female students ranged from 21 to 31 years old with a mean value of 23.21 +/- 1.09. The majority (95%) did not use substances, whereas 5% used substances at least once during their life. About half of the students (52.5%) scored average on the SSS, whereas 28% scored low and 19% were high on the scale. Comparison between both sexes revealed a significant difference in smoking (P<0.001). Both sexes did not differ in the attitude toward substance abuse and the SSS (P=0.37 and 0.20, respectively). Smokers showed significantly higher scores on attitude toward substance abuse (P<0.001) and also the students who had lifetime substance use (P<0.001). Conclusions: Smoking and substance use are more important than age and sex as predictors of attitude of medical students toward substance use.