Substance use and associated factors and associated factors among preparatory school students in Nekemte town western Ethiopia; school based a cross- sectional study

Abstract

Background: Millions of people throughout the world are using substances such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, marijuana, heroin and many others. Substance use by people in all parts of the world, particularly adolescents, has long been of scientific, political and public concern. Objective: -the main aim of this study was to prevalence of substance use & associated factors among Nekemte preparatory school students in 2019. Methodology:-. School based cross-sectional study was conducted among students at Nekemte preparatory school from March 20-30, 2018. Multistage stratified sampling method was employed to select 372 study participants. Collected data was cleaned and entered in to Epi info version 3.5.3 and transported to SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression was done to indentify factors associated with substance use in the study area. Result: The overall prevalence of current substance use was (19.1%). Being male students [AOR, 95%CI; 4.64(2.18, 9.75)], ever encountered pressure from friends to use substances [AOR, 95% CI; 2.61(1.03, 6.63)], having substance user parents [AOR, 95%CI; 6.4(2.87, 14.30)] and having many substance user friends [AOR, 95%CI; 6.2(2.82, 13.75)] were significantly associated with substance use among students in the study area. Conclusion & Recommendation: The current prevalence of substance use among preparatory school students of this study area was low. The most commonly used substances were alcohol, khat and tobacco. Being male students, pear pressure, living with parents use substance & friends were found to affect substance use among Nekemte preparatory school students. Awareness creation sessions; Information, Education &Communication intervention should be intensified to further reduce Substance use among students.