Prevalence of Ecstasy use and predisposing factors among Iranian female high school students

To determine prevalence of ecstasy use and its predisposing factors among Iranian high school female students in Tehran, capital of Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, 2350 female students of 36 high schools from Tehran, were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling to determine prevalence of ecstasy use and its predisposing factors. SPSS- version 13 was employed to conduct analysis through chi-square, fisher's exact test and logistic regression methods.

The prevalence of ecstasy use was 2.3% (95% CI: 1.7-2.9%). Party was the most prevalent place of first use (65%) and access was easy for most users (63%). In multivariate analysis, smoking (P-V = 0.005), alcohol use (P-V = 003), use of other substances (P-V < 0.001), being in relationship with boys (P-V = 0.015), families without one or two parents (P-V = 0.020), night spending at friends home without parents' permission (P-V = 0.001) were associated with ecstasy use.

Due to relation of ecstasy use with other substances, designed programmes should be comprehensive, with different strategies and collaboration of several sectors. The main strategies are to improve students' health literacy, family support, to limit supply and access, and to legislate appropriate regulatory laws.