{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T14:59:13Z","timestamp":1792076353451,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]],"date-time":"2024-05-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716768000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]],"date-time":"2024-05-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716768000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"name":"Institute for Tropical Medicine","award":["FA4 DGD-ITM 2017-2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FA4 DGD-ITM 2017-2020"]}]},{"name":"South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa","award":["82769"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["82769"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BMC Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Substance use is an escalating public health problem in South Africa resulting in risky behaviours and poor educational attainment among adolescents. There is a huge battle to overcome substance use among learners as more drugs become easily available with the mean age of drug experimentation reported to be at 12 years of age. It is important to continuously understand the trends in substance use in order to assess if there are positive changes and provide evidence for the development of context-specific effective interventions. This paper outlines the prevalence of substance use among selected high schools in a district in Limpopo province.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To determine the prevalence of substance use among selected high school learners in a district in Limpopo Province, a cross-sectional school survey of 768 learners was conducted. Data was analysed using SPSS v 26. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the independent and dependent variables and Chi-Square test was used to investigate associations between demographic characteristics and substance use among high school learners.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The most abused substances by learners were alcohol (49%), cigarettes (20.8%) and marijuana (dagga\/cannabis) (16.8%). In a lifetime, there was a significant difference (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009&lt;\u20090.05) in cigarette smoking with gender, school, and grade; with more use in males (14.2%) than females (7.6%); in urban schools (14.6) than peri-urban (6.7%) and more in Grade 12 (6.4%). There was a significant difference (\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009&lt;\u20090.05) in alcohol use with more use in Grade 10 (12.6%) and varied use among male and female learners but cumulatively more alcohol use in females (27.7%). Drug use varied, with an overall high drug use in urban schools (20.7%).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Substance use is rife among high school learners in the district and health promotion initiatives need to be tailored within the context of socio-demographic characteristics of learners including the multiple levels of influence such as peer pressure, poverty, unemployment and child headed families. Additional research is required to investigate the factors leading to a notable gradual increase in use among female learners and into the environmental and family settings of learners in influencing substance use.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-024-18927-7","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]],"date-time":"2024-05-27T04:02:21Z","timestamp":1716782541000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Trends in socio-demographic characteristics and substance use among high school learners in a selected district in Limpopo Province, South Africa"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Linda","family":"Shuro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Firdouza","family":"Waggie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"18927_CR1","unstructured":"United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 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An application to the ethics committee for additional ethical amendments was made to include conducting interviews virtually in July 2020 due to the Covid-19 lockdown regulations. Ethics renewal was also sought and granted with an extension from 21 April 2021 to 21 April 2023. Permission was granted to conduct the study by the Limpopo Department of Education within the selected schools. The study was conducted in accordance with the general ethical guidelines and regulations of the ethics committee and Department of Education. Informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality and right to withdraw was assured to all the participants. Informed consent ensured that the participants were fully informed of what the study entailed, what is expected from them, for them to decide whether they will participate in the research or not. The researcher visited each of the schools and explained the study to the principals and HOD. The researcher also visited the NGO that participated to present the study and ask for participation. The researcher went with the invitations, information sheets and consent forms to the circuit and these were sent to each school via the circuit office. The researcher also went with copies of the information sheets for the parents and learners to each school before the data collection. Therefore, the learners were informed of the study by providing them with an information sheet explaining the purpose of the research and what is expected of them. They also received the consent forms and assent forms to agree to participate in the study once they fully understood the purpose of the research. Parents\/legal guardians received information sheets and parental informed consent sought for learners to participate in the school survey. Anonymity was assured by the fact that participants\u2019 information\/responses were not ascribed to them specifically. It was assured that no names of individuals or the schools were written on the transcripts or in the report or publications. A preliminary report was made available to all relevant participants to verify the accuracy of the information before submission of the thesis for marking. An explanation was provided that the research is for academic purposes only and that there are no foreseeable risks from this research. Counselling and referral services to a social worker were arranged if participants experienced emotional discomfort during the data collection. However, during data collection, no participants required such services. Participants were informed that they are free to not participate further in the study at any time during the data collection process. It was explained that the research is not designed to help the participants personally, but the results may help the investigator learn more about factors linked to substance abuse in high schools and develop informed strategies. It was explained that the study provided valuable information and resources (Anti-Substance Abuse Initiative and situational analysis of the problem) which can benefit the high school community to develop skills to tackle substance abuse. This in turn could improve educational attainment and reduce risky behaviours.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"1407"}}