A Geospatial Drug Abuse Risk Assessment and Monitoring Dashboard Tailored for School Students: Development Study With...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Geospatial Analysis
• Youth Risk Behavior

Background:

• Drug abuse among youth has severe societal consequences, necessitating continuous monitoring.
• Identifying and tracking drug abuse rates in school-going populations is crucial.
• Geospatial dashboards are vital tools for decision support in monitoring drug abuse and related crime.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop MyAsriGeo, a geospatial dashboard for drug abuse risk assessment and monitoring among school students.
• To integrate multivariate student data for assessing drug abuse patterns and risks.
• To provide an innovative tool for understanding and managing youth drug abuse.

Main Methods:

• Agile methodology and prototyping were used to design and develop the geospatial dashboard.
• Requirements, feedback, and user approval were gathered through focus groups and interviews with diverse stakeholders.
• A total of 20 specialists evaluated the dashboard's usability, usefulness, interface quality, and sufficiency.

Main Results:

• The MyAsriGeo dashboard incorporates functions like high-risk area mapping, risk assessment tools, and screening tests.
• Expert evaluation showed significant improvements in ease of use (P=.047) and usefulness (P=.02).
• High acceptance scores were recorded for ease of use (4.2), usefulness (4.46), interface quality (4.29), and sufficiency (4.13).

Conclusions:

• MyAsriGeo is a valuable geospatial dashboard for monitoring and analyzing drug abuse among Malaysian school youth.
• The dashboard was developed collaboratively, meeting the needs of various stakeholders.
• It serves as a critical resource for understanding and responding to youth drug abuse issues.