Developing a tool to measure substance use and the associated factors among children

ABSTRACT

Background

There are insufficient accurate data on the prevalence of substance use among children in Iran. WHO is conducting a survey to study the prevalence of substance use among children in Iran. This manuscript describes the method that was used for developing the tools for the aforementioned survey.

Methods

A literature review was done on the risk factors, existing scales, and special considerations in conducting a substance use survey on children. The identified risk factors were then prioritized, and standard scales were selected for each. Based on the priority and the cultural and psychosocial properties of each age group, the methods of the survey were defined. Then, a qualitative assessment on content validity was done, and the tool was piloted among 90 participants.

Results

The tool contained 104 items for the 9- to 12-year-olds age group, and 168 items for each of the 12- to 15-year-olds and 15- to 18-year-olds age groups, respectively. The results of the Cronbach’s Alpha analysis showed a coefficient of 0.754 for the 9- to 12-year-olds age group, 0.735 for 12- to 15-year-olds, and 0.889 for the 15- to 18-year-olds.

Conclusion

The developed tool considered socio-cultural acceptability, cognitive, and ethical standards and showed high reliability and validity.

KEYWORDS:

• Assessment tool
• children
• substance use risk factors
• adolescents
• prevalence

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the participants in this study. Special thanks to Dr. Alireza Shakib and Ms. Masoumeh Mousavi for their help in piloting the tools. Also, the sincere contributions of Dr. Gelare Mostashari and Dr. Hamidreza TaheriNakhost are acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [World Health Organization (WHO) office in Iran] under Grant [202602532-1].