Background: Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs. One of the key impacts of illicit drug use on society is the negative health consequences experienced by its members. Drug use also puts a heavy financial burden on individuals, families and society. Objectives: The study aim to to assess the knowledge regarding drug abuse among the nursing students of selected colleges of the Udupi district. Materials and Methods: Pre-experimental group Pre-test Post-test design with a quantitative approach was used to assess the effectiveness of the planned teaching program on knowledge regarding drug abuse among the nursing students of selected colleges of the Udupi district. In the view of nature of the problem and accomplishing the objectives of the study, a structured knowledge questionnaire was prepared to assess the knowledge of nursing students regarding drug abuse and later the planned teaching program was given. The reliability of the tool was tested and validity was ensured in consultation with guides and experts in the field of Nursing and Medicine. The study was conducted in Vidya College of Nursing, Udupi. 50 nursing students were selected by purposive sampling technique. A structured knowledge questionnaire was used to collect the data. Collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The present study revealed that the mean post-test knowledge score 23, is higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score 9.38. The computed value 23.41(p <0.05) showed that there is a highly significant difference between the pre-test and post-test mean knowledge scores of 13.62. Conclusion: This study concludes that the planned teaching program is effective in increasing the knowledge scores of nursing students on drug abuse. The demographic variables of nursing students are not significantly associated with the knowledge scores.
Dinesan et al. (2025) studied this question.