Objective  To explore the perception, attitude, abuse intention about new psychoactive substances (NPS) and their influencing factors among university/college students in Shanghai city and to provide theoretical evidences for conducting anti-drug education in the students.

  Methods  Using stratified cluster random sampling, we conducted an online survey among 2 840 students of various disciplines in 3 colleges and 3 universities during August 2020 with a self-designed questionnaire on demographics, attitude towards NPS, and the acceptance of drug control education. Chi-square test and logistic regression model were adopted in statistical analysis.

  Results  Complete information were collected from 2 719 respondents aged 21.88 ± 2.19 years (59.29% males and 40.71% females). The respondents averagely reported the recognition on 3.41 kinds of new drugs and the recognition was influenced by the students′ gender, majoring, study abroad experience, participation of drug control education, the time of first acceptance of drug control education, and the participation of NPS-related drug control education. Of the 2 595 respondents ever participating in drug control education, 88.36% (2 293) reported to acquire the knowledge about drug abuse prevention mainly through relevant lectures. The results of multivariate binary logistic regression analysis showed that the respondents with following characteristics were less likely to have the intention of NPS abuse: ever participating in drug control education (compared to those never having the education: odds ratio OR = 0.497, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 0.307 – 0.805), being aware of serious hazards of cannabis use (compared to those with little awareness of the hazards: OR = 0.357, 95% CI: 0.245 – 0.519, to those without the awareness: OR = 0.259, 95% CI: 0.079 – 0.842, and to those without definite awareness: OR = 0.619, 95% CI: 0.393 – 0.973), without the intention of cannabis abuse (compared to those with probable intention: OR = 0.178, 95% CI: 0.111 – 0.287, to those with definite intention: OR = 0.451, 95% CI: 0.238 – 0.853, and to those without consideration on the intention: OR = 0.356, 95% CI: 0.231 – 0.511), with a negative attitude towards NPS (compared to those with an attitude depending on others′ NPS use experience: OR = 0.347, 95% CI: 0.232 – 0.520, to those considering the attitude depending on individual decision: OR = 0.363, 95% CI: 0.245 – 0.539).

  Conclusion  The perception on new psychoactive substances is at a low level and targeted education on the prevention of abuse of the substances could effectively improve the perception and reduce abuse tendency among college students in Shanghai.