Substance use by adolescents in the Western Developmental Region of Nepal

The health and well-being of adolescents is threatened by the use of psychoactive substances, such as tobacco, alcohol or other intoxicating substances. This study, carried out in 2011, explored substance use among 12–18-years-olds in the Western Developmental Region of Nepal, with 408 participants drawn from one urban school and two rural schools. Our aim was to identify the prevalence of psychoactive substance use, describe the related reasons, exposures and consequences and to discover the associations between substance use and various background factors. We evaluated the adolescents’ substance use with the Adolescents’ Substance Use Measurement and this showed that 10.5% of the adolescents used tobacco and 22.3% used alcohol and other intoxicants. Smoking and tobacco use was associated with gender, age and whether the fathers and grandparents smoked or drank and the use of intoxicants was associated with living in an urban area, the mother’s occupation and the father’s use of intoxicants. The adolescents at highest risk were older males and there was an association with the mother’s substance use. Our findings suggest that prevention programmes that tackle substance use among adolescents should focus on such factors as gender, age, living in urban areas and exposure at home.