Substance use in Roma population in contact with social workers in the Czech Republic: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey

Abstract

An increasing number of studies have focused on the topic of Roma communities and social exclusion in the Czech Republic, however, substance use has been surveyed only marginally. This paper brings new data on the patterns of substance use among Roma population in contact with social workers (546 respondents). Substance use, including daily smoking and regular excessive alcohol drinking, has been 2–6 times higher among Roma compared to the general population. Current illicit substance use was reported by 1/3 of the respondents (46.7% of males, 17.8% of females) with cannabis (27.1%) and methamphetamine (11.9%) being the most reported substances.

Keywords:

• Social exclusion
• Roma community
• smoking
• alcohol consumption
• illicit drug use

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by the project Sustainability for the National Institute of Mental Health, No. LO1611 with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the NPU I program, and by the Charles University institutional support Progres No. Q06/LF1.