Zahra Pourmovahed - Social Determinants of Health Research Center, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Seyed Mojtaba Yassini Ardekani - Research Center of Addiction and Behavioral Sciences, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd , Iran
Behzad Roozbeh - Department of Dentistry, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Nooshin Yoshany - Social Determinants of Health Research Center, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

Background: Substance misuse is often a destructive social and familialproblem that can extremely damage the health and well-being of a country snational assets; namely, its adolescents. Since high school is the riskiestperiod regarding the potential exposure to illicit drug use, this study aimed todetermine and compare the depth of knowledge in male high school students.In order to generate the components of an effective and targeted educationprogram, the two cities of Rafsanjan and Yazd, Iran were investigated.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, male high school students (n = 1913)from cities of Yazd (n = 1024) and Rafsanjan (n = 889) were selected throughrandom stratified systematic cluster sampling. Data were collected usingself-reported questionnaire surveying the students’ knowledge about illicitdrugs. Data were analyzed by SPSS software, version 16 through descriptive(mean and relative frequency) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test,ANOVA, and t-test).Results: The mean (SD) of the students knowledge about drugs in Yazd was17.38 (11.39); in Rafsanjan it was 11.68 (8.68) (out of a possible total of 64)which showed a significant difference between the two cities (P-value <0.0001). The mean (SD) score of knowledge about opiates (total possiblescore of 8) in Yazd was 5.4 (11.3) and in Rafsanjan was 5.92 (3.28), whichwas again statistically significant (P-value < 0.0001).Conclusion: Illicit drugs consumption remains a serious problem amongIranian adolescents. There is the need to implement preventive measures andcounselling approaches in schools. Regarding the role of an addict in thefamily, increasing the knowledge of people about the negative effects ofdrugs use (especially opiates) might lead to the better prevention of thissocial problem and promotion of health.

High School Students, Knowledge, Social Problem, Illicit Drugs, Opiates