Are medical undergraduates more likely to indulge in substance abuse than non-medical undergraduates? A survey from Karachi.

OBJECTIVE: To determine frequency of substance abuse and the commonest substance of abuse among medical and non-medical undergraduates. STUDY DESIGN: Survey report. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Dow International Medical College, Karachi, from June 2012 to August 2012. METHODOLOGY: Semester VIII students from Dow International Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences who visited the selected medical and non-medical universities, data collected through self responding questionnaire which was handed out to the participants. Data was collected from 4 medical and 4 non-medical universities. All responding undergraduate students in selected universities were included. Data was maintained and analyzed on SPSS version 16 for descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Total number of responders was 572 with male: female ratio of 1.23: 1.0 and mean age of 21.76 ± 2.168 years. Frequency of regular substance abuse was 20.1%. Males were abusing substance more than females, ratio being 4.7: 1.0 among abusers. The most common substance of abuse was tobacco. Frequency of regular substance abuse in nonmedical undergraduates was 29.4% which was higher than medical graduates (13.4%). CONCLUSION: Substance abuse among undergraduates in selected universities in Karachi was overall 20.1%. Male nonmedical undergraduates were more frequently using such substances; tobacco being the most common.