A COMPARITIVE STUDY ON HEALTH

PROBLEMS BETWEEN IDUs AND NON-IDUs IN

KATHMANDU

Suresh Dhungana
Symbol No. 284248/2069
T.U. Reg. No. 5-1-22-158-99

Background
Chemical substance which have physical as well as
psychological effect in the body are drugs.
A person who cant stop taking drugs s/he is a drug
depended.
Illicit drugs are those drugs which cant be
manufacture, produce and sell in the market without
the permission of law implementing agencies.

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Drug use is not new for Nepal. It is being used in
different culture, tradition and social rituals.
Drugs like Marijwana (Ganja), Bhang, Charash
(Hashish) has been widely used in Nepal for
Centuries. Alcohol and Cannabies are accepted
socially and culturally .

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If we collect the history of drug use in Nepal, it has
been started from the year 1960 after the entry of
hippies culture specially in Kathmandu.
Hippies introduced Heroin (Smack, Brown, White) in
Kathmandu at that time. After that different types of
drugs came in the market (60s to 70s).

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The number of people who inject drugs in Asian
continental is in increasing order. The South Asian
Region is also becoming the hub of the illicit drug
trafficking.
As Nepal is sharing most of its border with India and
uncontrolled drug supply from the border side is
becoming a threat to Nepal. Drug use poses serious
challenges as it affects mostly the productive age
people.

Statement of the problem

Substance use is not only a national problem but also
the problem of the world. It also reduces the
productivity of life as well as a threat to human life.
The globally estimated that the number of people who
inject drugs is12.7 million (UNODC, 2014)

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After the year of 1990s injecting Buprenorphine
became as the major problem.
There are altogether 91,534 drug users in 2069,
among them 85,204 are male drug users and 6,330
are female drug users which is almost double of
46,309 in 2063 (MoHA, 2069).

Objectives
Specific Objective:
To compare the socio-demographic characteristics of
IDUs and Non-IDUs.
To assess the risk practices between people who injects
and who dont.
To analyze the health problems among people who use
drugs (PWUD).

Conceptual Framework

Methodology
Research Design:
The study design was comparative research design
and utilizes quantitative method for data analysis &
interpretation.
Population of the Study:
As the drug users from Kathmandu valley was the
study population for this study. The injecting drug
users enrolled in the service providing agency (Youth
Vision) had contacted for the study purpose.

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Sampling Procedure:
Kathmandu (Kathmandu, Lalitpur & Bhaktapur) was
selected purposively
To reach the client service providing agency Youth
Vision was selected
Sample Size:
Overall drug users who enrolled Youth Vision 3
months before the first day of contact of the researcher
at Youth Vision were selected as sample size.

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Data Collection Tools:

Interview schedule for the illiterate client and questionnaire

for literate client were implemented as the tools to collect
data.
Finalization of Tools:

literatures were reviewed for the purpose of questionnaire

design.
The questionnaires were discussed with the supervisor and
some experts.
After the development of the questionnaire it was tested
among two non-sample respondents from field.

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Data Collection Procedure:
To collect the data, the researcher visited the selected
units of Youth Vision.
Researcher collect the data by distributing the
questionnaire to those who wants to involve in the
research process with the verbal consent.
The people who couldnt fill up the form the
researcher arranged an interview schedule in a
different room to maintain confidentiality .

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Analysis and Interpretation of Data:
The data were collected and edited on the evening of same
day.
The edited data was then entered into SPSS 16.0 Version

with MS-Word and MS-Excel were used for the analysis

process.
Simple statistics such as frequency, percentage were
used (by SPSS) to interpret the collected data with the
help of graph, figure, bar-diagram and pie-chart.

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A. Socio-demographic characteristics
Among the 96 respondents 97.92 percent were male and the majority
(30.21%) was from the age group 30 to 34.
Most of the respondents from Brahmin/Chhetri cast (35.42%) and
hinduism was the major (76.04%) religion.
Married (52.08%) was higher than unmarried (43.75%) and
significant percentage were divorced (4.17%).
More than 98 percent respondents were literate and more than half of
the respondents are living with their wife (52.08%)
Majority of the respondents live with nuclear family (69.79%),
arrange their money for drugs from family (33.33%).
Among the respondents 37.5 percent family source of income was
business and 40.63 percent respondents spend less than thousand per
day for drugs.

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B. Risk practices of PWUD
Cannabies (37.5%) and pharmaceutical tablets (31.25%) were the common
substances used by both types of drug users as an entry into drug habit.
Majority of the respondents (64.58%) entered into drug using habit during 15-19
years of age.
Among the PWID respondents 69 percent used to share the syringes.
Most of the drug users get their drugs either from drug dealers (48.96%) or from
drug user friends (43.75%).
More than one third of the respondents shift to injecting because of curiosity,
wanted to try something different (34.33%).
Most of the respondents used to take drugs three times a day (43.75%) followed
by two times (26.04%).
Majority of the respondents were active towards sex (65.63%) and started sexual
contact at less than 19 years (71.43%).
Only 14.29 percent of the respondents had the multiple sex partners.
Majority of the drug users use condom (66.67%) at each and every sexual act,
only 33.33 percent of the respondents use sometimes only.

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C. Health problems among people who use drugs
(PWUD)
Higher the percentage of the respondents (57.29%) didnt have to seek the
access to health services.
IDUs face more health problems (59.26%) than Non-IDUs (40.74%) and
the major common problem was abscess/swelling (29.63%).
Among the 41 respondents the famous place for to go for the treatment
was DIC (58.54%) and Hospital (34.15%).
Majority of the respondents (81.25%) tested for HIV and 6.41
percentages were seropositive. Among the seropositive eighty percent
were from IDUs.
Low percent of the respondents were tested for Hep. C (38.54%) and
56.76 percentage were living with the virus. Among them 80.95 percent
were from IDUs

Recommendation
A. General Recommendations
Pharmaceutical products should not be sell from medical stores without prescription.
Education on safer sex, safer injecting practice should be provided for those who are
already engaged with drug using habit.
General people should also be educated on drugs, sex and the behavior of PWUDs.
Guardian of the family should take care and counsel at the time of need of their
teenage member because it is the age of entry towards drug.
More DICs should open at different hotspots to provide the new needle and syringes
with field based basic health services.
Special awareness program should be launched by the service providing agencies like
Youth Vision and other GOs/NGOs/INGOs to aware about the health consequences
of drug abuse.
Health care services must be increase at the field level by service providing agencies
through the Outreach worker to decrease the prevalence of HIV, Hep. C. or other
BBDs.

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B. Recommendation for the National Policy
Government agencies must be sensitize to work
further for PWUD through the OST, HR program in
making appropriate national policies and programs
to address the issues and challenges concerning HIV,
Hep. C and treatment services for PWUD.
Government must open the service centers in
different parts of the country through its social wing
to support in the health condition of the PWIDs and
PWUDs.

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C. Recommendation for the Future Study
A longitudional study on separate drug using can
be conducted and compare the health hazards.
A study on multi-drug or polydrug can be
conducted with the comparison.
Further research should be conducted including
more female IDUs and should be focused on the
Hepatitis C and HIV among the IDUs.

Thank You