Prevalence and risk factors associated with recreational stimulant use among Berlin college students

ABSTRACT

Background

College students have been recognized as a risk group for substance use. Nevertheless, coherent risk factors for stimulant use remain to be elucidated. The objective of this paper is to identify risk factors associated with the recreational use of MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine.

Methods

An online questionnaire was distributed among colleges in Berlin. A sample of 12,914 college students participated, of which 9,382 met the inclusion criteria.

Results

Past-month prevalence was 7.0% for MDMA, 6.7% for amphetamine, 5.8% for cocaine and 0.1% for methamphetamine. Associated factors included male gender, “other” gender, homosexual and bisexual orientation, open relationship status or being single, engaging in sexual risk-taking behavior, having a psychiatric diagnosis, tobacco use, drinking alcohol and an increased number of (illicit) substances consumed in the past month and in life.

Conclusions

Berlin college students showed a substantially higher prevalence of stimulant use compared to both the general population and college students in other cities. Certain parameters, e.g., polydrug use, were particularly high in this group.

The results can be used in further development of prevention efforts. However, conclusions about causality are limited by the cross-sectional nature of this study, highlighting the necessity for longitudinal studies in this field.

KEYWORDS:

• University students
• polydrug use
• sexuality
• amphetamine-type stimulants
• Germany

Acknowledgments

We thank Grace Viljoen for proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

.FB received compensation from Takeda Pharmaceutical for conference presentations

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.