Assessment of Psychoactive Substance Use and the Level of Risk among Patients attending Three Primary Care Clinics in Benin-City, Edo State

Abstract

Background: Psychoactive substance use and misuse of prescription medication is prevalent among the general population. We aimed to ascertain the prevalence of psychoactive substance use (asides alcohol), misuse of prescription medications and level of risk of patients visiting three primary care clinics in Benin-City, Edo State.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 649 participants were recruited from three health facilities using systematic random sampling technique. The World Health Organization’s Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHO ASSIST) was administered to participants. Bivariate analysis was used to determine association between socio-demographic variables and psychoactive substance use. P-value < 0.05 was employed as level of statistical significance.
Results: Opioid pain medication was the most commonly ever used substance by participants with a lifetime prevalence of 55.6% (n=361) and a prevalence for current use of 40.2% (n=261). Males compared to females were more likely to be daily or weekly users of tobacco (p<0.001) and marijuana in the last three months (p=0.003). The widowed compared to the married or singles were more likely to indulge in daily or weekly use of sedatives (p=0.02) and opioid pain medication (p=0.001) in the past three months. One hundred and ninety-six (30.2%) of the participants demonstrated moderate risk while 4 (0.6%) demonstrated high risk to opioid pain medication use. Being male was significantly associated with the risk of adverse effects of tobacco (p=<0.001), marijuana (p=0.002) and stimulant use (p=0.002).
Conclusion: Routine screening for psychoactive substance use and misuse of prescription medication is recommended in primary care facilities.