INVESTIGATING THE KNOWLEDGE OF ALCOHOL AND MARIJUANA USE AND ITS COGNITIVE AND HEALTH EFFECTS AND THE ASSOCIATED SOCIO – DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC FACTORS: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN OTTAWA, CANADA.
Introduction
Alcohol and marijuana are psychoactive drugs. Psychoactive drugs are known to alter human mental states and nerve functions. Continued use of alcohol and marijuana may cause significant impairment such as liver damage and mental health and respiratory issues (Zaman et al., 2015). According to Zaman et al., (2015), excess alcohol consumption contributes to 4.5% of the global burden of diseases and body harm. Excess alcohol use results in 20% to 50% of liver damage, epilepsy and poisoning. The public health effects of marijuana include brain damage, addiction and lung issues. Approximately 2% to 5% of students at the age of eighteen report using marijuana at least once per day. Alcohol and marijuana use are a common occurrence among university students globally. Close to 50% of students are reported to use alcohol while 30% report to have used marijuana in the previous one year. In Canada, alcohol and marijuana are among the most used psychoactive drugs by university students. Both recreational and medical marijuana are legal in Canada provided one has the relevant licenses and permits to grow, sell and consume marijuana. The fact that access to marijuana is easy many youths and university students have found themselves hooked to marijuana. Despite the consumption, marijuana and alcohol dependency have serious health consequences among the younger population. Approximately 83% of students in grade 12 (16 to 17 years old) have been associated with drinking alcohol. According to a survey by the center for addiction and mental health, 58% of students in Canada use alcohol, and 25% use marijuana for various reasons (Kushnir and Cunningham, 2014). Also, students have more resources to locate and obtain alcohol and marijuana as well as the freedom to use them. Studies show that university students are unaware of their institution’s substance-use policies (Khalid et al., 2014). The research topic is significant and relevant since alcohol and marijuana use is coupled with health effects. It is important to study the knowledge of alcohol and marijuana use among university students so that the drug counsellors can comprehend whether the students understand the effects to plan for counseling and rehabilitation of addicts. In this study, knowledge refers to the facts, information, awareness and familiarity of alcohol and marijuana and the health effects and socio-demographic factors associated with the drugs. Awareness of alcohol and marijuana will refer to how students perceive the two drugs in terms of effects related to health. Awareness and knowledge are perceived to contribute to changes in behavior. While this may be true at some extent, it may also be irrational considering how people decide on how to behave. Most people are usually informed but choose to ignore the facts that defy their view of what they want to hold on to. Creating too much awareness of something may be harmful and may create a ‘normality’ view (Kite et al., 2018). This comes up when the awareness focuses on the behavior such as the behavior on substance use. Instead, such awareness should focus on the long-term game of understanding and nurturing defensive factors. Kite et al., (2018) proved that awareness effectively increases knowledge of recommendations and health effects. The effect on behavior is however minimal. The study aims to investigate knowledge of alcohol and marijuana use, and health effects and socio-demographic factors associated with it, among university students in Ottawa, Canada.
Literature Review
A quantitative cross-sectional study was carried out in the United States to determine whether there was a relationship between the type of marijuana laws from student’s states of residence and college marijuana use. The study also sought to determine whether there was a relationship between marijuana law knowledge and marijuana laws in the state of Alabama. In the study a convenience sample of 391 undergraduate students participated (Burroughs, 2019). However, it was noticed that there was high usage of marijuana in states that had limited medical marijuana laws.
Alcohol use on university campuses in the United States of America is public health issue thus has called for much research on the same niche (Boudreau, 2013). The study by Boudreau (2013) investigating the effectiveness of two interventions. The first intervention aimed at exposing participant’s information regarding social norms and student alcohol usage. The second intervention focused more on the information regarding the impact of alcohol on the body and the brain. Those who reported high levels of drinks per week had less accurate perceptions regarding the effects of alcohol usage than those who reported less drinks per week.
According to a study carried out by Anyanwu and Tshitangano (2014) on the knowledge, practices and attitudes of university students regarding the use of drugs like alcohol and marijuana, many aspects regarding the two drugs were revealed. Marijuana and alcohol are the two most used drugs by university students in Canada. The quantitative study had 332 participants comprising of 138 females and 194 males. The participants selected using systematic and simple sampling strategies. Collection of data was done by asking the participants to fill out written questionnaires. The results of the study revealed that 214 students who represented 64.1% had high knowledge on matters concerning usage of psychoactive drugs. Additionally, more than half (52.6%) had knowledge regarding drugs which can cause reduced concentration, 42% had knowledge of the adverse effects of using drugs.
In another study done on the use of psychoactive substances in medical students in 2017, out of the total 150 users of psychoactive substances, 107 were male, while 43 were female. The usage of marijuana and alcohol is prevalent more in males with a very high difference margin. Men contribute to 71% of users while women only make 29%. From the study, it was observed that substance use was at a higher rate in members of senior year classes as compared to those in their first year of study, with an increase from 17.11% in first years to 30.06%, and 24.24% in fourth and final years respectively (Nawaz et al., 2017).
Heckman and Collins (2011) research on substance-related knowledge, attitude, and behavior among university students, 47% of the male students interviewed admitted to using substance occasionally, while 35% of female students admitted to being substance users. The research showed that students who used drugs recorded a low score on the drug knowledge pre-test quiz given to them during the research compared to students who were not involved in drug use. Knowledge of drugs for students who did not use drugs did not increase but rather decreased over the course of the semester.
Few studies have looked into the knowledge of alcohol and marijuana use and its health effects and the associated socio demographic factors. More so, most research does not have a clear focus on the health effects of these drugs to university students.
Research questions:
What is the knowledge of university students on alcohol and marijuana use and its cognitive and health effects in the University of Ottawa, Canada and what socio demographic and economic factors are associated with good knowledge?
Aim: This study aims at investigating the knowledge of students in university in Ottawa about alcohol and marijuana use and factors associated with good knowledge.
Objectives:
· To critically appraise available literature and the level of knowledge of university students in Canada and similar countries on alcohol and marijuana use and factors associated with it.
· To collect data on the knowledge of university students on alcohol and marijuana use as well as factors associated with good knowledge using questionnaires from Boudreau (2013) study, Jaworowski et al., (2014) research, Burroughs (2019) study and Schmits et al., (2016) research.
· To analyse the data on the level of knowledge of university students in Ottawa and use chi square and multivariate logistic regression to identify the socio demographic and economic factors associated with good knowledge.
· To make recommendations on the best factors associated with good knowledge of alcohol and marijuana use.
Epistemological approach: A positivist approach will be employed. Positivism is a research philosophy that agrees that only information obtained through observation and measurement is credible. Positivist approach usually relies on scientific evidence for instance experiments to bring out true nature of the world (Quick and Hall, 2015). Its focus is on evidence when researching for facts and the significance of objectivity. Since epistemology focuses on known facts, quantitative research will be suitable to postulate that facts can be distinguished from values/ this will enable us to realize evidence that the research will correspond to the facts in the field. Positivist research is best suited for this research because it will help generate trustworthy knowledge on the two drugs among university students.
Positionality: As a researcher my perception regarding the topic of knowledge of alcohol and marijuana use, and factors associated with it, among university students is that the students are aware of the effects of alcohol and marijuana use. I will ensure that I will rely on the data and results from the research. I will not rely on my perceptions to avoid being bias.
Methods
Study design: This study will take a cross-sectional design: the outcomes and the exposures are measured at a single point in time (Setia, 2016)
Setting: The study population will be drawn from the University of Ottawa. Ottawa is Canada's capital and university of Ottawa is the main educational Institution, thus proving an ideal setting for this study.
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