Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis of Research Studies Related to Factors Affecting Substance Use in Iran from 2002 to 2021

The current research aimed to discover the effective patterns of substance use in Iran and provide appropriate solutions based on previous research studies.

This research was descriptive (systematic review) and analytical (qualitative and of meta-synthesis type). A systematic search of domestically published articles was conducted in the Scientific Information Database (SID), the Magiran database, etc., aiming to determine valid, reliable, and relevant documents in the period of 2002 to 2021, and 89 articles were extracted, which in the next step, 58 relevant articles were selected based on the methodological rules of meta-synthesis. The quality of the results (validity) was evaluated through consultation with several experts and reliability evaluation using the Kappa index.

Descriptive results showed that the mean age of starting substance use in Iran is during adolescence and youth. Also, the first experience of getting to know substances was through relatives and friends, and factors such as ethnic subculture, social norms, contextual-demographic factors, individual-psychological factors, social failure, high-risk behavior, differential association, socialization, leisure style, social control, social label, socioeconomic anomie, policy-making weakness, and structural-functional disorders affected substance use. In general terms, the aforementioned meta-synthesis was conducted in the form of 6 constructive themes and 19 basic themes with related statistical primary codes.

The prevalence of substance use and its transformation into a norm and lifestyle has complexity under causal conditions, and its solutions should also be based on comprehensive and comprehensive policy-making across various fields, such as family, society, economy, culture, and deep social education related to the mentioned issue.