Background Cough mixtures can help or harm. Very few literatures involved cough mixtures abuse (abbreviation to CMA) while we often have clinical cases basically of adolescent abusers. This research aims to the prevalence of CMA among adolescent students in Dongguan, China.

Methods Analyses were based on a cross-sectional survey of students (N 8 529) from all 22 middle and high schools in Dongguan, China. Logistic regression models were computed to examine prospective risk factors of CMA behaviour. Cough mixtures were defined in those prescription medicine drinks containing codeine component for the upper respiratory tract treatment purpose originally.

Results The very prevalence of CMA varied from 5.36% to 12.54% in all 8 age groups (12 to 19 years old) during the past one year before investigation. Male students were more vulnerable with a rate of 8.17% in comparison to female 5.93% ( 3.263, p 0.017). Prospective risk factors of CMA included single parent family (OR 3.047, 95% CI: 2.184 to 3.946), depression or anxiety (OR 2.851, 95% CI: 1.014 to 3.415), high study stress (OR 1.954, 95% CI: 1.245 to 3.214), and convenience to obtain (OR 1.856, 95% CI: 1.012 to 2.547). Drug dependence was the main adverse consequence of CMA from acute symptoms like palpitation (7.48%), illusion (5.26%), and coma (2.58%) to chronical changes such as weak appetite and mal-digestion (85.47%), difficulty to sleep (80.12%), and decline of memories (78.24%).

Conclusions CMA endangering adolescent students calls for multidisciplinary enforcement and education intervention in Dongguan, China.