Health related Quality of Life and Relative Attributes among Substance Users

Abstract

Background: Substance abuse is one of the most harmful widespread public health consequence. The prevalence of drug abuse has been increasing rapidly all over the world. Recently, in Bangladesh substance abuse is recognized as a grave health and social problem which threatening the whole nation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was directed to assess health related quality of life and relative attributes among 235 substance users of Central treatment center and Brain and Life hospital situated in Dhaka. The questionnaire was prepared by using HRQoLDA scale. Results: The mean age of substance users was 32.29±11.47 year. Two-thirds of the respondents (74.8%) were under graduate and worked in different profession. Most the respondents came from joint families (50.6%) and low income families (45.1%).The majority of the respondents used ganja (79.6%) followed by yaba (45.5%), alcohol (35.7%), injectable drugs(30.0%), fensidil (14.9%), tablet (9.8%) and rest heroine (9.4%). Two-thirds of the respondents started using drug by friends influence (67.2%) followed by family issues (28.1%), depression (21.7%) and rest other causes (10.6%).There were several significant associations were found between the variables as presence of any physical pain, presence of sleeping disturbance, presence of nausea, presence of lack of energy or tiredness, presence of depression, presence of aggressiveness, presence of recalling problem, presence of hallucination (a) auditory (b) Visual , presence of concentration problem, presence of disorientation problem, use of illicit drug to feel better physically, use of illicit drug to feel better mentally, presence of any physical pain which interfere daily activities, felt deterioration of physical condition, felt deterioration of mental condition, getting care from surrounding people, presence of any family problem, Believe if drug use reduce social activities, believe if some people can quit drug and the total mean scores of HRQOL. Age, education, Occupation, family income, duration of using of drug, and number of time of using of drug per day were statistically significant (p<0.05) with the total mean scores of HRQOL. Marital status and with drawal effects such as restlessness, loss of temper, insomnia were also statistically significant (p<0.05) with the total mean scores of HRQOL. Conclusion: This study revealed that the total health related quality of life among substance users were not satisfactory. Implementation of public awareness programs and strong legislation can improve the health related quality of life of the substance users and help in reducing the substance abuse in the both individual and community level.