Exploring attitudes and knowledge about drug abuse among 100 adolescents of four provinces in Iran and developing a participatory interactive training module for drug abuse prevention among 20 drugs exposed adolescents of Alborz and Golestan Provinces, Iran

In view of the drug abuse issue in Iran, especially its prevalence among adolescents, awareness plays an essential role in prevention of its spread. Based on educational syllabi taught in schools there is not proper teaching material about this critical issue. On the other hand the necessity to have information about the societal awareness level is clear for starting any educational intervention. Therefore, the current study explored awareness about drug abuse among adolescents and then developed and piloted a participatory interactive training module for drug abuse prevention. This study was conducted in 2019 in two steps. The first step was implemented in 4 cities: Tehran, Mashhad, Karaj, Gonbad-Qabous, and for a group of Afghan immigrants living in the countryside of Gonbad-Qabous. A validated questionnaire was adopted to determine knowledge, attitude, and practice of adolescents regarding addictive drugs. [17] This was accomplished by volunteer participation of 100 teenagers who were invited to the study by cluster sampling. The second step was conducted in Karaj and countryside of Gonbad-Qabous as intervention study. The study identified 100 adolescents' knowledge status and attitude toward drug abuse according to age and gender in 4 Provinces of Iran. 62% of participants had not studied about substances' effects before the treatment. 36% and 62% had intermediate and poor knowledge status about substance abuse respectively, and 77% in total had positive or very positive attitude toward drugs...