Prevalence of Ecstasy use and predisposing factors among Iranian female high school students.
OBJECTIVE
To determine prevalence of ecstasy use and its predisposing factors among Iranian high school female students in Tehran, capital of Iran.


METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, 2350 female students of 36 high schools from Tehran, were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling to determine prevalence of ecstasy use and its predisposing factors. SPSS- version 13 was employed to conduct analysis through chi-square, fisher's exact test and logistic regression methods.


RESULTS
The prevalence of ecstasy use was 2.3% (95% CI: 1.7-2.9%). Party was the most prevalent place of first use (65%) and access was easy for most users (63%). In multivariate analysis, smoking (P-V = 0.005), alcohol use (P-V = 003), use of other substances (P-V < 0.001), being in relationship with boys (P-V = 0.015), families without one or two parents (P-V = 0.020), night spending at friends home without parents' permission (P-V = 0.001) were associated with ecstasy use.


CONCLUSIONS
Due to relation of ecstasy use with other substances, designed programmes should be comprehensive, with different strategies and collaboration of several sectors. The main strategies are to improve students' health literacy, family support, to limit supply and access, and to legislate appropriate regulatory laws.
Department of Community Medicine (Faculty of Medicine), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Hourieh
H
Shamshiri Milani
Ali Reza
AR
Abadi
Zohreh
Z
Helmzadeh
Kambiz
K
Abachizadeh
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D019969:Amphetamine-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D018817:N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D018817:N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine