Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): Drugs Summary Report 2015

Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Abuse Survey ( SALSUS) 2015: Drugs summary report

Summary of Key Changes Since 2013

While drug use prevalence has remained stable between 2013 and 2015, with the exception of 15 year old boys, there appears to have been an increase in the availability of drugs since the last wave of the survey. There have been increases in the proportion of pupils who have been offered drugs and the proportion who say they would find it easy to obtain drugs if they wanted to.

Long Term Trends

Drug use in the last month has been gradually decreasing since 2002. However, between 2013 and 2015, there has been a small increase in the proportion of 15 year old boys who took drugs in the month prior to the survey. Drug use among 13 year olds and 15 year old girls has remained stable.

Trends in drug use in the last month, by age and sex (1998-2015)

SALSUS 2015: Drugs summary

SALSUS 2015: Drugs summary

SALSUS 2015: Technical details

Survey Background

The Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS) is a continuation of a long established series of national surveys on smoking, drinking and drug use. These were carried out jointly in Scotland and England between 1982 and 2000, to provide a national picture of young peoples' smoking (from 1982), drinking (from 1990), and drug use (from 1998) behaviours within the context of other lifestyle, health and social factors. Since 2002, Scotland has developed its own, more tailored, survey known as SALSUS.

SALSUS measures progress towards Scottish Government targets for smoking and drug use, and is used to inform the Scottish Government priority of addressing harmful drinking among young people.

Methodology

SALSUS is a self-completion survey administered by teachers in a mixed ability class, under exam conditions. In the past, the survey has been completed on paper, but for the first time, in the 2015 wave, half of the sample completed the survey online.

A random nationally representative sample of S2 and S4 pupils in school was selected with classes as the primary sampling unit. All local authority and independent schools in Scotland were eligible for inclusion in the sample, with the exception of special schools.

Fieldwork was completed between September 2015 and January 2016. The overall response rate was 53%.

Data was weighted by local authority, age, sex, school sector (state/independent), school denomination and by urban/rural classification.

Further Information

More information on survey methodology can be found in the technical report available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/health-community-care/social-research/SALSUS

The full 2015 SALSUS drug report is also available at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/health-community-care/social-research/SALSUS

Contact Details

For further information and queries, please get in touch at salsus@gov.scot