Singh, Ajay KVerma, KushelGuleria, AmitPuri, ShaliniSharma, AnkitSharma, Vaishali2020-11-182020-11-182020-10Singh Ajay K, Verma Kushel, Guleria Amit, Puri Shalini, Sharma Ankit, Sharma Vaishali. Evaluating substance use in an urbanizing town of mid hills of Northern India. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences. 2020 Oct; 8(10): 3611-36172320-60712320-6012http://imsear.searo.who.int/handle/123456789/212653Background: Substance use is emerging as a major cause of morbidity and mortality across the world. Solan, a fast urbanizing town of India has witnessed mushrooming of industries and educational institutes. A surge in the persons booked under the Narcotic Drug and Psychoactive Substance Act 1985 led us to look into the determinants of the substance use in this region.Methods: We undertook a cross sectional study of one year secondary data analysis of 750 substance users screened at the de-addiction centre of Solan Hospital. The data mining was done by the cluster analysis technique. SPSS 16 and STATA 13 software were employed.Results: Mean age of users was 31 years with dominance of males (89.20 %), two third of total users were married, 75% were unemployed, 42% had upper school level education. About 60 and 38% were using cannabis and chitta (a synthetic opioid) respectively. Only 2% were consuming tobacco and alcohol. 62% of substance users had the fear of legal action and 44% had no family history of substance use. 39% had only single parent, 54% had started substance use under peer pressure and duration of use varied between 6 to 24 months.  Alcohol and cannabis were used more in urban and rural areas respectively. 63 and 70% had family history and experience of peer pressure respectively.Conclusions: Cluster analysis has generated substance specific socio-demographic determinants of substance use which would help in planning appropriate substance use alleviation strategies.CannabisChittaCluster analysisDe-addictionSecondary dataSubstance useJournal ArticleIndiaDistrict Programme Officer, Department Health and Family Welfare, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, IndiaMedical Officer, Regional Hospital, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, IndiaCounsellor (De-addiction), Regional Hospital, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, IndiaDepartment of Economics and Sociology, PAU Ludhiana, Punjab, India