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Drug Addiction and Substance Use Among the Dalit Married Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh: a Cross-Sectional Survey

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Abstract

Dalits are referred to “shattered,” “outcasts,” and socially marginalized community in Bangladesh. In particular, Dalit adolescent girls are the most vulnerable owing to their caste and gender. Prior studies have looked at the prevalence and effects of drug addiction among the youths in mainstream population, but the Dalit adolescents were excluded from the samples. The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of drug addiction and substance use among the Dalit married adolescent girls (MAGs), and to identify the significant predictors associated with this addiction. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 300 MAGs in the Dalit community. Involving systematic random sampling, participants were selected from both urban and rural settings located in Dhaka and Gaibandha districts. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to explore the significant factors associated with drug addiction. The prevalence of drug addiction was 11.3% among married Dalit adolescent girls. Multivariate analysis identified that participants’ habit of smoking (AOR=5.210, 95% CI=2.413–11.250), participant’s husband’s habit of smoking (AOR=10.415, 95% CI=3.911–27.739), and habit of using alcohol/highly risky substances (AOR=19.030, 95% CI=6.481–55.875) were significant associated with drug addiction. An alarming proportion of Dalit adolescent girls were recorded to be habituated in various forms of drugs use. Therefore, immediate policy measures focusing intensive campaigns, targeted counseling, and health education programs need to design to get over the risky health behaviors.

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Notes

  1. 1 US Dollar = 85 BDT

  2. The per capita income in Bangladesh is $1466 (124,610 BDT) in the 2019–2020 fiscal year, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants of this study for the repeated help in gathering data at different stages of the study.

Availability of Data and Materials

All data generated and analyzed for this study are included in this article. We are happy to share the raw used or analyzed data of the study, and make them available publicly on reasonable request to corresponding author due to the confidentiality of the participants and ethical issues concerned.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University, 102/1 Shukrabad, Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka, 1207, Bangladesh

    Md. Imdadul Haque, Varoti Rani, ABM Alauddin Chowdhury, Tasnim Akter, Md. Golam Dostogir Harun & Abu Naser Zafar Ullah

  2. Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Varoti Rani

  3. SQUARE College of Nursing, Dhaka, 1205, Bangladesh

    Tasnim Akter

  4. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

    Istiaque Hasan

  5. KIT Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Abu Naser Zafar Ullah

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Contributions

MIH contributed to the development of the overall study concept, analysis, drafting of the paper, and helped improve the manuscript. VR designed the study and developed the questionnaire. ANZU reviewed the whole manuscript and contributed substantially to improve it, will act as corresponding author. IH contributed in second drafting of the manuscript and literature review. All other authors contributed equally in data collection, data analysis, and writing the manuscript. All the authors have read the manuscript thoroughly and approved its contents.

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Correspondence to Abu Naser Zafar Ullah.

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Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

As marginalized community, prior to commencing the data collection, we first met the community leader of Dalit community, and explained the study objectives and took their oral consent to collect information regarding the study topic. We then explained the study objectives clearly to the study. To comply with all possible ethical issues, the participants were also confirmed that participation was sheer voluntary, and could be terminated at any time without reason and without any penalty. An informed written consent was taken from the participants (aged >18 years) before interview, and they were ensured that all their personal information would be preserved with strict confidentiality. However, in the case of pregnant girls aged <18 years, the study procedure adopted the assent from participants and consent from their legal guardian (husband/father). While entering each household, we gather consent of participation from the household head as well. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the FAHS-REC, DIU ethics committee.

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Haque, M.I., Rani, V., Chowdhury, A.A. et al. Drug Addiction and Substance Use Among the Dalit Married Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh: a Cross-Sectional Survey. Int J Ment Health Addiction 20, 3145–3161 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00570-7

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