Visits to the doctor because of illness or injury of the students of vocational schools who consume or do not consume psychoactive substances (comparative aspects)

Aim. To elucidate what impact has the use of different narcotic drugs, alcohol and tobacco on the health of students and the risk of injuries.
Material and methods. We carried out a questionnaire survey of the first year students from all six vocational schools of Klaipeda (Lithuania) in 2004, 2006 and 2008. A total of 912 students (507 boys and 405 girls, mean age 17.5 years) were surveyed with an anonymous questionnaire. The findings were analysed with computer soft SPSS (SPSS 16.0 for Windows).
Results. The results showed that the use of any psychoactive substances is damaging to health, especially injection and club narcotic drugs. Adolescents addicted to any psychoactive substances more often than non-addicts visited doctor due to illness or injury during the last 12 months.
Conclusion. Adolescents on illegal drugs, especially boys on injectable narcotic drugs and girls on club drugs were at twice higher risk for disease or injury (odds ratio - OR - 3.39, 95% confidence interval -CI - 1.25 to 9.19, p=0.016 and OR -2.38, CI - 1.35 to 4.20, p=0.003, respectively). Tobacco and alcohol consumption did not significantly increase this risk with the exception of tobacco smoking girls. We think it happened because these two addictions are widely spread among large part of the boys from the vocational schools.

vocational school students, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, illness, injury, visits to the doctors