Abstract: Objective To find out about how much health care providers know about drug abuse monitoring in order to provide basic information for drug abuse monitoring in medical institutions. Methods A random sampling method was employed to investigate the amount of knowledge of drug abuse monitoring and the status quo with drug abuse. Health care providers from comprehensive hospitals, mental hospitals and cancer hospitals in 12 provinces in China were enrolled in this survey. Results Data collected from 358 health care providers (in 61 medical institutions) was analyzed. The results showed that 84.6% of the health care providers knew something about drug abuse. 60%-67% of them had some knowledge of drug abuse monitoring, drug dependence as well as the diagnostic standards for drug abuse. However, 10% of them interpreted drug abuse and drug abuse monitoring differently from the National Medical Products Administration. Only 50% of these health care providers had a clear idea about the drugs that could cause drug dependence. The percentage of health care providers who had encountered narcotic drugs abuse, mental drug abuse and drug overdose was 18.9%, 31.9%, and 9.0%, respectively. Conclusion When medical institutions start drug abuse monitoring, it is advisable to give the personnel concerned some training regarding the related concepts, diagnostic standards and drugs which could cause dependence. The departments of emergency, oncology, psychiatry and psychology should be the focus of monitoring.

Key words: drug abuse, monitoring, health care providers, amount of knowledge