Prevalnce of Smoking, Alcohol Consumtion, and Drug Abuse in Iranian adults: Results of Azar Cohort Study

Background: As one of the world's most serious health concerns, substance abuse has major health impacts on addicts, their families and society, as a whole. The aim of the present study was to provide evidence with detailed prevalence estimates of smoking, alcohol consumption and drug abuse among the respondents of Azar cohort study, in Tabriz, Iran. Methods The Azar cohort study is a part of PERSIAN cohort study, aimed to examine the risk factors of common non-communicable diseases among Iranian adults. The data on 15006 subjects with 35 to 70 years of age including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption and drug abuse and socio-demographic characteristics were analyzed. Due to the difference in the number of male and female samples, the prevalence of substance abuse for the entire sample was calculated using the direct standardization method, with a 95% confidence interval. Results Totally, 9.3% and 6.2% of the participants were regular cigarette smoker and heavy cigarette smoker, respectively. Also, 1.9% and 2.1% of participants were illicit drug user and alcohol drinker, respectively. Substance abuse were more prevalent among males, compared to females. There were significant differences between substance abuse, age and socio-economic variables. Also, there were strong associations between the mentioned three substance abuse behaviors. Conclusion Demographic and socio-economic status were contributed to smoking, alcohol consumption and drug abuse. Therefore, high-risk groups should be taken into account while designing substance abuse prevention programs. We also identified associations between the three risky behaviors, which shows the emergency of need for intervention on the group that has the three risky behaviors, simultaneously.