Abstract:
Background: - Substances use for high and preparatory school students is a major
public health problem in Ethiopia, despite a growing number of substance users,
little attention has been given by the research community and the government. This
study investigated the prevalence of substance use and its associated factors
among high and preparatory school students in Metema North West Ethiopia.
Objective:-The main aim of this study was to assess substance use and its
associated factors among high and preparatory school students in Metema 2021.
Method: - Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among Metema
high and preparatory school students from April1-30/2021. Multistage sampling
technique was employed to select 842 study participants. Data were cleaned and
entered in to EpiData and transported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive
statistics was done and findings were presented in tables and besides bi variable
and multivariable logistic regression model were employed to identify the factors
associated with substances use. Statistical significance was declared at p-value of
<0.05 considering the respective AOR at 95% of CI.
Result: The overall prevalence of current substance use was 283(34.3%) with
95%CI, 31.2-37.5). Factors like had not good relationship with their parents
(AOR=1.82,95% CI=1.82(1.07-3.13]), attending class irregularly
(sometimes)AOR=3.93,95%CI(2.33-6.63), hopelessness(AOR=4.8,95%CI,(2.708.5),
use substances for reading purposes AOR=3.36, 95%CI,(1.94-5.82), live in
perceived community norms allow buying substances under the age 18
AOR=2.08,95%CI(1.10-3.91) were found to have statistically significant association
with current substance use.
Conclusion and recommendation: - The current prevalence of substance use
among school students of this study area was relatively high. It needs special
attention from parents, school community and ministry of health to reduce
substances use from students.
Key word: - substances use, tobacco, khat, alcohol and shisha
