Epidemiology of Substance Use Among Urban Secondary School Children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiology of substance use among urban secondary school children in Malaysia. Data were collected from 10% of all secondary students in the city of Kuala Lumpur (n = 8625). Epidemiological data were collected by anonymous questionnaires. Urine samples were collected randomly and anonymously from a subsample unlinked to the questionnaires, and tested for cannabis, opiates, amphetamines and barbiturates (n = 966). Results were analysed from 8532 questionnaires. The age of the adolescents ranged from 11 to 20 years, with a majority of them being between 12 and 18 years of age. The male female ratio is 0.9:1. The ethnic distribution closely represents the distribution of ethnic groups in Kuala Lumpur with 49.2% Chinese, 37.1% Malays, 10.4% Indians and 2.9% others. Use of illicit drugs ever tried was reported by 1.4% (122) of the students. The prevalence of current drug use is 0.1% (10), with a male to female ratio of 1.2:1. The age distribution showed that the ...