Azmina Hussain
Betel Quid (BQ) is one of the four commonly used substances worldwide. Although BQ has psycho-active ingredients, still evidence regarding dependency on it is scanty amongst adolescents. The current analysis was aimed to determine the adolescents’ dependency on BQ along with its individual, social and environmental determinants.
This study surveyed 2200 high-risk, school-going adolescents in Karachi-Pakistan. The outcome was students’ dependency on BQ assessed by betel quid dependency scale (first time cut-off value ascertained in adolescents). After employing univariate and multivariate logistic regression, both crude and adjusted odds ratios were used to estimate BQ dependency in its users (after adjusting for all individual, social and environmental determinants) with 95% confidence interval. The p value was set to be significant at <0.05.
Amongst 2200 students, 874 (39.7%) used BQ. The dependent individuals on BQ were 69 (7.9%) out of 874. BQ with tobacco users were significantly dependent (OR=14.08, 95% CI 3.64–54.16) than users of only areca nut and BQ without tobacco. Students who chewed > 5 chews per day (OR=1.87, 95% CI 1.08–3.29) and those who have been chewing BQ for more than a year (OR=2.02, 95% CI 1.09–3.74) were more likely to be dependent on it. Older students of >12 years of age (OR=2.12, 95% CI 1.06–4.23), and who were in government school set-up (OR=3.32, 95% CI 1.80–6.10) were more dependent on BQ compared with students of private schools.
Future interventions may be formulated with focus on these determinants for positive outcome.