Prevalence of Addiction in University Students of Asia

Abstract

Background: Addiction is a sickness that progresses over time and causes people to lose control of their use, posing a risk for disability and premature loss of life. Students are always at greater risk to develop an addiction because of academic stress, disrupted sleep and social life, and peer pressure. Our review aims to find the prevalence of alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis addiction among university students in Asia. This will help to identify the extent of the problem and allow to establish goal-directed programs to control and reduce the prevalence of addiction and organize student awareness programs to minimize the destruction caused by it. Methodology: In this systematic review, a comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane, and Google scholar in August 2022. Searches were conducted using keyword combinations such as addiction, substance abuse, alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, university students, Asia, and Asian nations. The review accepts full-text original English-language research that was completed within the last ten years. Results: In total, twenty articles were included in this review. The highest prevalence of alcohol addiction in university students was 66.8%, while that of nicotine and cannabis addiction was 76.76 % and 27.3% respectively. The lowest prevalence of alcohol addiction was 7.8%, among the sample studies, the lowest nicotine addiction was 19.8%, and the lowest cannabis addiction was 9.88%. Conclusion: The prevalence of addiction in Asian countries is high and is rising, with alcohol addiction being the most prevalent. Awareness campaigns and community programs should be initiated to reduce this high prevalence to save the continent of Asia from the harmful effects of addiction and substance abuse.