Misuse of drugs: perceptions of household heads in Kisumu district, Kenya.

A cross-sectional survey involving 15,324 household heads, reporting on a population of 68,487 people in Kisumu district in Kenya, revealed that there was at least one person who regularly used a drug in 6,793 (44.3%) of the households. Out of these 4,497 (66.2%) were concerned with the practice. This gave a reported rate of drug use of 6.4 for alcohol, 2.7 for cigarette smoking, 0.6 for bhang (Cannabis sativa) smoking, and 0.2 for unprescribed medicines per 100 study population. The main reasons for concern consisted of financial problems cited by 49.1% of the household heads; family violence by 19.7%; loss of jobs by 15.1%; chronic coughs by 10.7%; and other reasons that included imprisonment, decline in school performance, and abnormal behaviour. Out of those concerned about half (47.9%) had taken some actions to control the drug use with 26.7% of these reporting the actions having worked. This study points out a need for further research to identify the unprescribed medicines and quantify other drugs used in order to advice on an appropriate local and national drug policy.