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Article

Prevalence of Life Style Drugs Usage and Perceived Effects among University Students in Dar es Salaam

1Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania


American Journal of Biomedical Research. 2014, Vol. 2 No. 2, 29-35
DOI: 10.12691/ajbr-2-2-3
Copyright © 2014 Science and Education Publishing

Cite this paper:
Kennedy D. Mwambete, Theresia Shemsika. Prevalence of Life Style Drugs Usage and Perceived Effects among University Students in Dar es Salaam. American Journal of Biomedical Research. 2014; 2(2):29-35. doi: 10.12691/ajbr-2-2-3.

Correspondence to: Kennedy  D. Mwambete, Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Email: kmwambete@muhas.ac.tz

Abstract

This was a cross-sectional study involving randomly selected university students from University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS). Each respondent filled in a consent form prior to an interview. Awareness and prevalence of LSD usage, perceived effects and personal opinions on LSD usefulness were investigated. A total of 310 students (222 males and 88 females) aged between 21 and 35 years were interviewed. About 56.5% (n=175) were non-medical students from UDSM while 135 (43.5%) were medical students from MUHAS. Majority (92%) of the students was aware of LSDs, though only 29.3% of them had used one of 10 tracer LSDs, while 18 (5.8 %) students were uncertain whether they had ever used LSDs or not. Over 81% of LSD users had used alcohols and 43% of those admitted to have been propelled by peer pressure. Euphoria and “good sleep” were the mentioned by 27% of LSDs users as motive for consuming them, while 32.5% said LSDs usage added an extra-financial burden. This is the first study on the prevalence of LDS usage in universities.

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