Substance Use among Undergraduate Students at Mizan-Tepi University in Ethiopia: Prevalence, Associated Factors, and Its Effect on Health and Academic Performance

Abstract

Background: Worldwide, substance use among undergraduate students is a major public health problem and over 29 million people worldwide suffer from substance-related disorders. The use of substances is a growing concern in Ethiopia, in a particular college and university students are the most at risk of substance use and their impacts on the younger generation have become a great concern. Despite some shreds of evidence are available regarding substance use, the problem is not well studied among these groups of the population. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence, associated factors, and health and academic effects of substance use among undergraduate students at Mizan-Tepi University in Ethiopia.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 544 regular undergraduate students of Mizan-Tepi University in Ethiopia. Data were collected using a pre-tested self-administered structured questionnaire. The data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. The level of significance in the multivariable logistic regression analysis was declared at a p-value < 0.05.Results: Of the 544 respondents interviewed, the lifetime and current prevalence of substance use among students in Mizan-Tepi University was 62.5% and 27.9% respectively. The most common reported lifetime and current substance use was alcohol drinking with 42.6% and 23% respectively. The study also found that being male (AOR=3.01, 95% CI [1.64-5.53]), being Muslim (AOR=3.13, 95% CI [1.64-5.96]), from urban residence (AOR=3.12, 95% CI [3.01-5.31]), having divorced/separated parents (AOR=3.08, 95% CI [1.64-5.79]), having family substance use (AOR=7.98, 95% CI [5.52-11.6]) and peer substance use (AOR=4.33, 95% CI [2.68-7.26]) were the factors significantly associated with current substance use.Conclusion: The current prevalence of substance use was substantially higher. We can say that substance use is a public health problem among university students in Ethiopia. Higher education institutions should consider designing programs to control substance use among students to improve their student's health and academic performance. Parents should closely monitor the behavior of their children by communicating with teachers.