The global distribution and epidemiology of alcohol and drug use among street-involved children and youth: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Background: Street-involved children and youth (SICY) who work and live on/of the streets are more likely to inject drugs and engage in psychoactive substance use.

Objectives: The present study aimed to identify the prevalence, distribution, sociodemographic determinants, and risk-taking associated with alcohol and drug use among SICY.

Methods: Studies published in English related to alcohol and drug use among SICY were searched for from December 1 1985 to July 1 2022, on PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, and Web of Science.

Results: After full-text paper evaluation, 73 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Results indicated that lifetime prevalence rates were 44% (alcohol), 44% (crack), 33% (inhalants), 44% (solvents), 16% (tranquilizer/sedatives), 22% (opioids), and 62% (polysubstance use). The current prevalence rates were 40% (alcohol), 21% (crack), 20% (inhalants), 11% (tranquilizer/sedatives), and 1% (opioids). Also, life-time and current prevalence of alcohol and crack use, current prevalence of tranquilizer/sedative use, and life-time prevalence of polysubstance use were higher among older age groups. Life-time prevalence of tranquilizer/sedative use was lower among older age groups.

Conclusions: The high prevalence of using alcohol, crack, and inhalants is a major issue because they are used extensively among different age groups, including minors. Such findings are beneficial for policymakers, health authorities, and professionals in developing programs aimed at minimizing inhalant use and other types of substance use harms among this group. It is important to accurately monitor this risk-exposed population to understand the mechanisms that might help protect them from high-risk substance use.

KEYWORDS:

• Street-involved children and youth
• alcohol use
• drug use
• crack use
• inhalant use
• tranquillizer/sedative use
• sexual abuse

Abbreviation

CIs: Confidence intervals; NOS: Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; OR: Odds ratio; PECOs: Participants, exposures, comparison, outcome and study design; PRISMA: Protocols of systematic reviews and meta-analyses; SICY: Street-involved children and youth; UNICEF: United Nations Children’s Fund; WHO: World Health Organization

Author contributions

BA – Conceived the study BA – collected all data. BA and RM – analyzed and interpreted the data. BA and EA – drafted the manuscript. MDG and BA contributed to the revised paper and were responsible for all final editing. All authors commented on the drafts of the manuscript and approved the final copy of the paper for submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-for-profit sectors.