Substance abuse among antenatal patients at jos university teaching hospital, north central Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Substance use in this country, among pregnant women, is a recent phenomenon as our women embrace western culture. More worrisome is the current finding showing no 'safe' level of alcohol exposure for possible adverse effect or harm to the developing child to occur.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine what substances are used and the prevalence of substance use among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Northcentral Nigeria.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING: Jos University Teaching Hospital.

RESULTS: A total of 557 women were administered the pre-tested questionnaire. The mean age was 29.1 years, with a range of 15 to 48 years. The prevalence rate of substance used among the pregnant women was 43.8%. In all, 244 of the 557 women were taking one substance or the other. About 61.9% of the women abuse Kolanuts. There was no significant difference in the age group between those who sue it and those who do not (p-value 0.7411). Other substances were chlorpheniramine 10.6%, alcohol 8.6%, diazepam 4.5% and promethazine 2.5%, cigarettes/tobacco 2.9%, phenobarbitone 2.9%, cocaine 2.5%, codeine 2.0%, and marijuana 1.6%. A significant number 22.8% admit to using other substances in pregnancy. The commonest reason given for substance use is to control nausea and vomiting of early pregnancy.

CONCLUSION: Nigerian pregnant women use and abuse a wide variety of substances and drugs during pregnancy just as their counterparts in the developed world. The high prevalence observed in this study was largely due to the consumption of locally available substances.