Alcohol and substance usage among undergraduate students in the main campus of the University of Gaziantep

This study was conducted to determine the alcohol and substance usage level and the factors affecting the usage level among the undergraduate students in The University of Gaziantep.First year and last year students of all departments in the main campus of The University of Gaziantep were involved in the study in order to determine the level of alcohol and substance usage at the beginning and at the end of the university life. 1352 first year students and 865 last year students were involved in the study without sampling. Access rate to the study area was 95.2%. Survey papers including 39 questions about personal informations and alcohol and substance usage were applied to the students in the classrooms. Data was evaluated using a statistics package program (SPSS, version13.0).813 students (38.5%) involved in the study were girls and 1298 (61.5%) were boys. 1291 (61.2%) of the students were first year students and 820 (38.8%) were last year students. 56.8% of the boys and 44% of the girls stated that they used alcohol, even once. It was found that 8.6% of the boys and 2.1% of the girls used substance at least once. 65.5% of the last year students and 43.2% of the first year students stated that they used alcohol, even once. It was found that 8.3% of the last year students and 4.6% of the first year students used substance at least once. According to the logistic regression analysis; sex, year, alcohol usage among friends and monthly allowance amount affected alcohol usage significantly. Sex, year and success in school are the factors affecting substance usage significantly.It can be concluded that alcohol and substance usage is an important public health problem among university students. Higher alcohol and drug usage levels in last year students than that of first year students show that university life is a factor increasing the alcohol and substance usage. Contunious education must be given to the students in the university. Families, health workers and community have great responsibilities in the prevention of alcohol and substance addiction.