Religiosity and Drug Use Involment Among School Adolescents in Bogota, Colombia

Background: Religion and religiosity have shown to exert a protective effect against substance use, problematic use and substance dependence.  Yet, understanding the role of religiosity on the process of substance use involvement among youth, a population that commonly does not comply with social norms, and in a context where substances are highly available remains to be explored. This study aims to assess the relationship between religiosity and substance use involvement among a representative sample of school adolescents (8^th to 10^thgrade) in Bogota, Colombia.

 Methods: Data was collected from a stratified cluster sample of 2,279 students from 23 schools in Bogota, Colombia. Attitudinal dimensions of religiosity were assessed by asking the students about the importance of church attendance in the past year. Logistic regression models were implemented to estimate the relationship between degree of religiosity and opportunity to smoke, opportunity and intentions to use internationally regulated drugs (IRD), ever having being drunk, and transition from opportunity to use tobacco or IRD to actual substance use. Analyses were conducted among the total sample and the subsample of students who reported an opportunity to use tobacco (n=1,693) or IRD (n=724), respectively.

 Results: The average age of the sample was 14.8 (SD=1.2). Overall, 50% reported a low degree of religiosity (i.e. attending church perceived as not important). Compared to students who reported that going to church on Sundays was an important activity, those who did not were more likely to ever have experienced an opportunity to smoke (age and sex Adjusted Odd Ratio AOR=1.9; 95%CI=1.5-2.3), ever have experienced an opportunity to use an IRD (AOR=1.8; 95%CI=1.5-2.1), ever have been drunk (AOR=1.5; 95%CI=1.3-1.8) or to report positive intentions to use IRD in the next 12 months (AOR=1.2; 95%CI=1.2-1.8). Degree of religiosity was not associated with transition to smoking (AOR=1.2; 95%CI=0.9-1.5) or transition to IRD use (AOR=1.3; 95%CI=0.9-1.8) among those who reported having had an opportunity to do so. 

Conclusions: Religiosity seems to function as an external control factor that reduces the likelihood of experiencing an opportunity to use substances or to report positive intentions to use IRD. This protective effect of religiosity on drug use is diluted once an opportunity to use substances has occurred. Preventive strategies should, therefore, promote youth participation in pro-social activities that discourage substance use directly by reducing interactions with substance using peers, or indirectly by promoting norms that prevent adolescents from placing themselves in contexts that encourage substance use.