SoutheaSt aSian J trop Med public health 346 Vol 46 No. 2 March 2015 Correspondence: Muhammad Hoque, Gradu- ate School of Business and Leadership, Univer- sity of KwaZulu-Natal, King George Avenue, Glenwood, Durban, 4041, South Africa. E-mails: hoque@ukzn.ac.za , muhammad. ehsanul@gmail.com EFFECT OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ON SUBSTANCE USE AMONG SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS S Ghuman 1 and ME Hoque 2 1 Department of Community Health Studies, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa; 2 Graduate School of Business and Leadership, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Abstract. Substance use is a common problem among South African youth. We conducted this study to determine whether religious beliefs infuenced substance use among South African youth. We conducted a cross sectional study of 704 students from fve high schools in South Africa. We used a questionnaire to as- sess self reported substance use and religious beliefs among the study subjects. We used binary logistic regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between the subjects’ religious beliefs and substance use. Thirty-six point six percent of students reported being very religious. More female students reported being very religious than male students (p=0.039). Fifty-four percent of students had ever consumed alcohol. Comparing alcohol and drug use between religious and non- religious students, it was found that alcohol and drug use were more common among non-religious students (28.3%, 30.4%) than very religious students (8.4%, 11.5%) (p<0.05). Those who considered themselves religious had lower odds of substance use. Religious beliefs had an infuence on substance use among South African youth in our study. Keywords: students, protective factor, religiosity, substance use, South Africa is a common problem (Palen et al, 2009). A national Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 2002 found 12.5% of high school students began drinking alcohol by age 12 years and 25% of students in grades 8-11 engaged in binge drinking (Reddy et al, 2003). Reddy et al (2003) found 13% of students in these grades had tried mari- juana. Peltzer and Ramlagan (2009) found alcohol use ranged from 21.5% to 62% dur- ing 1993-2006 and binge drinking ranged from 14% to 40%. Alcohol abuse can cause social problems, such as accidents and injuries, violence, illegal drug use, school failure, risky sexual behavior and abuse among adolescents (Schneider et al, 2007). Religious beliefs have been shown to have preventive and health protective INTRODUCTION Substance use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco is associated with morbidity, mortality violence, tuberculosis, and HIV/ AIDS in South Africa (Taylor et al, 2003; Parry et al, 2004; Simbayi et al, 2004; Sitas et al, 2004; Schneider et al, 2007; Seedat et al, 2009; van Zyl Smit et al, 2010). In South Africa, alcohol is responsible for 7% of all deaths (Schneider et al, 2007). Among South African youth, substance use