Table 1.

Characteristics of the respondents

Characteristics of respondents	Total n (%)	(Early onset) n (%)	(Late onset) n (%)	P value
Demographic characteristics
Age of substance abusers in years	Mean ± SD	25.77 ± 8.83	34.16 ± 8.72	<0.001*
Gender (male)	190 (86%)	127 (90.1%)	63 (78.8%)	0.026*
Educational level
> Secondary level	118 (53.4%)	74 (52.5%)	44 (55.0%)	0.780
Occupation
Economically inactive	140 (63.3%)	101 (71.6%)	39 (48.8%)	0.001*
Substance use related characteristics
Current type of substance use
Licit	68 (30.8%)	21 (14.9%)	47 (58.8%)
Illicit	56 (25.3%)	44 (31.2%)	12 (15.0%)	<0.001*
Both (Licit + Illicit)	97 (43.9%)	76 (53.9%)	21 (26.2%)
Current frequency of substance use
≥ 3 times	176 (79.6%)	128 (90.8%)	48 (60.0%)	<0.001*
Duration of substance use in years	(Mean ± SD)	8.43 ± 7.40	9.39 ± 6.99	0.348
Relapse after first treatment	100 (45.2%)	76 (53.9%)	24 (30.0%)	0.001*
Mode of substance use
Injecting	57 (25.8%)	51 (36.2%)	6 (7.5%)	<0.001*

n = 221

*p significant at ≤ 0.05 level