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Abstract
Background
Few studies have addressed the validity of self-reports of substance use in Iran. This study was conducted to evaluate concordance between self-reported data on drug use and urinalysis results in an adult population in Mashhad as the second most populous city in Iran.
Methods
This population-based study recruited 2142 Mashhad residents aged over 16 years. The data were obtained from a study conducted in 2015 on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in an adult population in Mashhad. The participants were selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling. To evaluate the validity, the participants’ responses to a single-question screening test of drug use were compared with their urinalysis results. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the self-reports were also assessed.
Results
The prevalence of drug use was found to be 2.33% (95% CI: 1.75–3.09) based on the self-reported data and 17.74% (95% CI: 16.15–19.43) based on the urinalysis results. Opioids were the most prevalent form of drug used and the self-reports indicated low validity (sensitivity = 12.63%, 95% CI: 9.54–16.49). The women were found more predisposed than the men to misreporting their drug use.
Discussion
In line with other studies in Iran, the validity of the self-reports of drug use was found to be low. Policymakers should therefore avoid relying only on self-reported data to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and preventive strategies.
It is recommended that further in-depth studies be conducted to address the factors affecting the validity of self-reports in Iranian populations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Author contributions
Study conception and design: M.KH. Acquisition of data: M.KH, A.R, T.H, and N.V. Analysis and interpretation of data: M.KH, T.P and A.R. Drafting of manuscript: T.P and M.KH. Critical revision: all authors.
Notes
1 Mashhad is the second-largest holy city in the world and the second most populous city in Iran, annually attracting more than twenty million pilgrims and tourists, who mainly come to visit the shrine of Imam Reza as the 8th Shi’ite Imam (Forouhar & Hasankhani, Citation2018; Gholami & Ziaee, Citation2017). The excluded district 4 known as Samen comprised the primary and historical core of Mashhad surrounding the holy shrine. The district has been evacuated and shrunk by the Samen Renewal Project, leaving only 0.5% of Mashhad population in the region () (Forouhar & Hasankhani, Citation2018).