Substance use among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Background. In sub-Saharan Africa, substance use among adolescents has continued to be a major public health concern, albeit poorly documented across many settings. Objective. To estimate the prevalence of substance use among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods. We searched Pubmed, EMBASE, AJOL and Google Scholar for population-based studies on adolescents (age 10 - 19 years) and reporting on the prevalence of substance use across sub-Saharan Africa. Search dates were from January 2000 to December 2016. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted with pooled prevalence rates (and 95% confidence interval (95% CI)) of estimated substance abuse among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. Results. Twenty-seven studies across sub-Saharan Africa including 143 201 adolescents (mean age 15.6 years) were selected. The overall prevalence of ‘any substance use’ in sub-Saharan Africa was 41.6%, with the highest rate in Central Africa at 55.5%. The use of caffeine-containing products (including coffee or kola nut) was most predominant at 41.2% (95% CI 24.3 - 58.1) but limited to West Africa. These were followed by alcohol at 32.8% (95% CI 26.0 - 39.5), tobacco products 23.5% (95% CI 17.7 - 29.3), khat 22.0% (95% CI 12.5 - 31.5) and cannabis 15.9% (95% CI 12.2 - 19.1). Other abused substances included depressants at 11.3% (95% CI 6.5 - 16.1), amphetamines 9.4% (95% CI 6.0 - 12.9), heroin 4.0% (95% CI 3.5 - 4.5) and cocaine 3.9% (95% CI 1.4 - 6.5). Conclusion. Our study reflects a high use of psychoactive substances and drugs among adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. It is important that interventions and rehabilitation programmes are comprehensive and targeted at adolescents and parents in these settings.
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Despite a high burden of substance use among youth in Africa, little had been done to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of BIs for youth and adolescents.
“Despite a high burden of substance use among youth in Africa [129], little had been done to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of BIs for youth and adolescents.”
From A scoping review of substance use brief interventions in Africa (2024) · cites this paper as [129]
Substance use is a major problem among youth in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Substance use is a major problem among youth in sub-Saharan Africa, yet interventions that address this problem are scarce within the region.”
From Adapting a substance use screening and brief intervention for peer-delivery and for youth in Kenya (2023) · cites this paper as Olawole-Isaac et al., 2018
Substance use is a major problem among youth in Africa and has significant negative implications.
“Substance use is a major problem among youth in Africa (Olawole-Isaac et al., 2018) and has significant negative implications (Erskine et al., 2015; Heradstveit et al., 2017).”
From Adapting a substance use screening and brief intervention for peer-delivery and for youth in Kenya (2023) · cites this paper as Olawole-Isaac et al., 2018
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- Authors
- Olawole-Isaac, A., Ogundipe, O., Amoo, E. O., & Adeloye, D. O.
- Affiliations
- Covenant University (NG)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Venue
- South African Journal of Child Health
- Published
- 2018-09-04
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2b
- Pages
- 79
- ISSN
- 1994-3032 (ISSN-L)
- 1999-7671
- OpenAlex
- W4244021955
- Cited by
- 132
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 0.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- South African Journal of Child Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Demography › Youth, Drugs, and Violence
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Keywords
- adolescent substance use, substance use prevalence, sub-Saharan Africa, caffeine consumption, alcohol consumption, tobacco use, khat, cannabis use, depressants, amphetamine, heroin, cocaine, psychoactive substances
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