Journal article

Alcohol and other substance use among a sample of young people in the Solomon Islands

B Quinn, E Peach, CJC Wright, MSC Lim, L Davidson, P Dietze

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health | WILEY | Published : 2017

Abstract

Objective: Investigate alcohol and other substance use, with a focus on harmful alcohol use patterns, among young people in the Solomon Islands. Methods: A structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was administered to respondents aged 15–24 years across four of the country's provinces in late 2015. Results: Four hundred young people completed the questionnaire across urban, peri-urban and rural communities. The most common substances ever used by participants were betel nut (94%), licit/store-bought and/or illicit alcohol (79%) and tobacco (76%). Lifetime and recent substance use was particularly common among male respondents; e.g. 89% of male participants reported ever using any al..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship


Funding Acknowledgements

We thank the participants who took part in the study, and the staff of community-based organisations who assisted with recruitment. In particular, we are very grateful to the staff of Save the Children (both in Australia and the Solomon Islands) for their valuable efforts in designing and undertaking the study, including participant recruitment and data collection. The names of specific colleagues and funding details have been excluded to allow for anonymous review. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the contribution to this work of the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Dr Quinn is currently funded by a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship and Prof Dietze is funded by a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (GNT1004140).