Psychoactive substance use among Serbian adults – results from online survey

Background: The aim of the study to provide data on prevalence and patterns of substance use among Serbian adults and give insight on differences between different demographic groups.

Methods: Data are obtained by online survey conducted on quota sample of 2514 Serbian adults 18-50 years old. Descriptive statistics was used for presenting substance use prevalence and chi square test for analysis of differences between demographic groups.

Results: Last year prevalence (LYP)of cannabis use is 6.3% among population18-50 years old and statistically significantly higher among young adults 18-34 years old (8.8%) (χ2=17.724, p=0.000); among males compared to females (7.6% and 5.25 respectively) (χ2=10.259; p=0.001) and population living in urban vs. rural settlement (7.4% and 3.6% respectively) (χ2=12.675; p=0.000). Last year prevalence of any illicit drug except cannabis use is less than 2% (1.8% among 18-34 years old and 1.6% among 18-50 population group).

Conclusion: Results confirm previous findings that cannabis is the most prevalent drug in Serbia, with higher prevalence among young adults, males and people living in urban settlements. Data are of specific importance for getting insight for the 2020, the year marked with pandemic of COVID-19. Given that previous studies were conducted through face to face (F2F) surveys, it will provide basis for comparison of data obtained through different methodology, as 2020 data indicate higher prevalence compared to those obtained in previous F2F surveys.