Substance abuse studies and prevention efforts among Arabs in the 1990s in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority--a literature review.
This paper is the result of a collaborative project of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian scientists gathered to reveal the current extent of substance abuse and efforts at prevention among Arabs in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority territories, in order to identify needs and suggest future collaborative activities and directions for regional cooperation. The article provides data and covers the current state of substance abuse prevention and research among Moslems, Christians and Druze in the trilateral region in the 1990s by reviewing prevention materials and studies published in the professional literature, as well as in reports and Doctoral and Master's theses in Arabic, which have been located in academic libraries and other institutions, in the framework of a comprehensive search. This manuscript is the first to summarize Jordanian and Palestinian findings in the substance abuse domain. The review shows that most of the Israeli research in the Arab sector deals with alcohol use among youth, that the majority of Jordanian studies focus on illicit drug use, that the research among Palestinians is in its infancy, and that comprehensive prevention programs are lacking in the trilateral region. It describes the key results of most of the 12 Israeli studies among Arabs, 11 Jordanian studies and four Palestinian studies. It reveals that drug abuse among Israeli Arab students is probably more prevalent than among Jewish adolescents, that the typical Jordanian drug addict has a higher level of education than the typical Palestinian drug addict, and that the Palestinian is more likely to be a multiple drug user. Recommendations for future activities include organization of a regional collaborative workshop in order to establish data collection systems for basic statistics relevant to drug abuse and development of comprehensive prevention programs, as well as studies in the substance abuse domain concerning knowledge, attitudes and behavior among the general Arab population.
Israel Society for the Prevention of Alcoholism, Ramat Gan, Israel.
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Weiss
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Sawa
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Abdeen
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Yanai
D018912:Arabs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000208:ethnology; D007597:Jordan / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*