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Abstract
According to the Afghanistan Ministry of Health, 3.5 million people use drugs, 2.4 million of which are regular users. In this cross-sectional study, it was aimed to determine epidemiological characteristics of addicts in a treatment center in Kabul. Eight hundred people were included. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS 22.0. The average age was 30.74 years, 88.9% were male, and 50.6% were married. Further, 35.9% have never been trained, 60.5% of participants were living in urban areas, 62.8% were refugees, 17.5% were unemployed, and 30.3% of them had monthly income below 147.1 USD. The average age of starting substance use was 19.9 years. “Friendship environment” was the leading reason to start (36.6%), followed by “reduce troubles” with 22.3%. The most preferred substance was cannabis (46.0%), followed by opium (25.3%) and heroin (17.0%). Heroin was the most commonly used substance lifelong (87.1%), followed by cannabis (66.3%) and opium (65.5%). When compared to individuals younger than 18, heroin use rates were 3.52 times higher in the 18-to-30 age range, 5.49 times higher in the 31-to-45 age range, and 1.86 times higher in urban residents than rural. Cannabis use was 12.24 times more among men than women, 2.79 times higher among divorced or widowed individuals than singles, 1.68 times higher among refugees than non-refugees, and 2.26 times higher among drug traffickers than non-traffickers. Opium use was 1.63 times higher for refugees than non-refugees and 3.24 times higher in those who worked in drug fields than those who did not. Periodic assessment of prevalence of drug use and the establishment of drug use monitoring systems are recommended.
Authors’ contributions
MIF: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, and writing of the original draft. MNI: conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, review, and editing. CK: formal analysis, methodology, software, validation, visualization, writing of the original draft, review, and editing.
Funding
This research was financed by the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan and Ministry of Health of Afghanistan. Transportation costs for the research team including food allowance of three times was provided by the Higher Education Ministry. Blood testing kits for HIV, HCV, and HBS along with complete uniforms were financed by the Ministry of Health of Afghanistan. Because all the drug addiction clinics work under the ministry of health of Afghanistan, the ministry assisted in the research implementation by providing a complete team consisting of internal medicine specialist, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and social workers.
Availability of data and materials
Not applicable (the transcripts are in Turkey).
Ethics approval and consent to participate
This study was carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. For the ethical suitability of the research, Gazi University Ethics Commission was applied; ethics committee approval was obtained at the meeting dated 13.06.2017 and numbered 06. In addition, the purpose of the study was explained to each participant and written consent was obtained from those who agreed to participate in the study.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.