Social factors of Health and Drug Addiction in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Social dimensions of health and wellbeing of drug addict are factors that propels and as well determine the wellbeing of drug addicts in any social environment. The study specifically examine social factors such as social environment, educational level of people and social network as it influences drug addiction in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria. Literature was reviewed on these variables while the social disorganization theory was employed as the study’s theoretical framework. The research design employed was the Expost Facto with primary data from Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Calabar and University of Calabar Teaching Hospital. The study sampling techniques employed were purposive; convenience and simple sampling technique with a sample of 388 but after administration and collections, 381 instruments were retrieved and used for analysis. The two instruments- Questionnaire on Social Factors and Drug Addiction (QSFDA) and Interview Guide of Drug Addiction were used for the study. Data was analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multiple Linear Regression analytical tools at 0.05 level of significance. From the analysis, findings revealed that the social environment an individual resides, level of education and social network have a significant influence on drug addiction in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria. From the analysis, several recommendations were made and one of such is that, to deal with the dichotomy between social environment and drug addition, government through its agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency should set up community task force in rural communities to check activities of addict in rural communities mostly in areas where they cultivate these hard substance, so that, such could be controlled. It was concluded that socio-economic factors at multiple levels have an association with the etiology of drug use and exacerbation of problems among drug users