Substance use among children and young persons appearing in the Nairobi Juvenile Court, Kenya.
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Date
2003-11Author
Maru, HM
Kathuku, DM
Ndetei David M.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
OBJECTIVE:
To estimate the prevalence and pattern of substance use among children and young persons appearing in the Nairobi Juvenile Court, Kenya.
DESIGN:
A point prevalence survey.
SETTING:
The Nairobi Juvenile Court, Kenya.
SUBJECTS:
Ninety (sixty four males and twenty six females) children and young persons aged 8 to 18 years classified as criminal offenders, group I (60) and those for protection and discipline, group II (30), were selected.
METHOD:
Socio-demographic and substance use questionnaires were administered to the subject. International classification of diseases, 10th Edition (ICD-10) diagnostic criteria were used.
RESULTS:
Crude rate for substance use in this study was found to be 39 out of the total sample of 90(43.3%), children and young persons. Of these thirty nine, 33 (85.8%) were males and six(14.2%) were females. Twenty nine (32.2%) used nicotine, 19(21.1%) used volatile hydrocarbons, 8(8.9%) used cannabis six (6.7%) used alcohol, five (5.6%) used khat and three (3.3%) used sedatives. Multiple substance use was also evident.
CONCLUSION:
This study has shown a high presence of substance use in children and young persons appearing in the Nairobi Juvenile Court.
URI
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15248681http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/17522
Citation
East Afr Med J. 2003 Nov;80(11):598-602Publisher
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya; Mathari Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya
Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10377]