Prevalence of Lifetime Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use Among 10th Grade Students in Istanbul

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of lifetime tobacco, alcohol and drug use among 10th grade students in Istanbul, Turkey. Method: A cross-sectional online self-report survey was conducted in 45 schools from 15 districts in Istanbul. The questionnaire included sections about demographic data, substance use in family or in environment, school life, social contacts and use of substances including tobacco, hookah, alcohol, marijuana, volatiles, heroin, cocaine, non-prescribed legal tranquillizers (benzodiazepines, alprazolam etc.) and illegal tranquillizers (flunitrazepam). The analyses were conducted based on 4957 subjects. Results: A trial at least once in life is observed mostly in hookah use (45.4%), followed by alcohol (34.2%), cigarettes (24.4%), volatile substances (4.9%), benzodiazepines (3.8%), marijuana (2.9%), cocaine (0.6%) and heroin (0.4%), respectively. The risk of heroin, ecstasy or marijuana use was significantly higher among male students. Our data also show that using tobacco or alcohol increases the risk of use of all other substances. Conclusion: We believe that determining current substance use data in Istanbul, which has a heterogeneous structure and a population of 15 million, is very important. Nevertheless, it is obvious that a study covering different geographical regions of Turkey is also necessary.