The relation between individual and familial characteristics with substance abuse tendency

Background and Objective: Substance abuse is a major concern all over the world. Due to some individual, familial and social factors the identification of related factors can help us to design a more effective strategies for the prevention of drug abuse. This study was performed to evaluate the relation between individual and familial characteristics with substance abuse tendency in self-introduced addicts. Materials and Methods: This case control study was done on 120 addicted subjects referred to addiction clinic of 5Azar hospital, Gorgan, North of Iran and 120 matched non-addicted subjects were considared as controls. Data collections were performed by questionnaire and interview. Data analyzed with using T-test, Chi-Square and logistic regression. Results: Univariate analysis showed that high school (OR=4.63, 95%CI: 1.78-12.02) and high school graduate subjects (OR=15.5, 95%CI: 4.9-50) showed higher tendency toward addiction compared to university educated people. History of substance abuse in friends (OR=7.33, 95%CI: 4.09-13.13) and previous and present cigarette smoking (OR=12.35, 95%CI: 6.65-22.93) increased abuse tendency. Permanent employment decreased abuse tendency (OR=0.109, 95%CI: 0.05-0.22) compared to temporary job. Conclusion: This study showed that addicted friends, cigarette smoking, low level of education and temporary job increase drug abuse tendency