The magnitude of substance use and associated factors among Wallaga University undergraduate students, Wallaga, Western Ethiopia, 2024

Firezer Belay ^1* Eba Golja Abdissa ¹ Adisu Ewunetu ¹ Gelane Gurmu ² Desalegn Biru ³ Lalisa Mekonnen ² Keneni Ephrem ⁴ Worku Fikadu ¹ Getahun Fetensa ⁵

• ¹ School of Public Health, Institute of Health Science, Wollega University, Nekemte, Oromia Region, Ethiopia
• ² Gimbi General Hospital, GIMBI, Ethiopia
• ³ Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Wollega University, GIMBI, Ethiopia
• ⁴ Oromia Regional Health bureau, West Wollega zone health department, Gimbi, Ethiopia
• ⁵ Department of Health Behavior and Society, Faculty of Public Health, Institute of Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Back ground: Substance use among undergraduate university students has been recognized as a global public health issue and little concern is given to this issue. A limited study was conducted on substance use and associated factors in western part of Ethiopia and our study area with same study population. Therefore, study aimed to assess the magnitude of substance use and associated factors among Wallaga University undergraduate students, in western Ethiopia, in 2024. Methods and Materials: Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 674 Wallaga university undergraduate students from March 25/2024 to May 2, 2024. Multi-stage cluster sampling was used for sampling procedures and data were collected using self-administered questionnaire developed from WHO ASSIST V3.0 tool. The collected data were entered into Epi Data v.4.6 and analyzed using SPSS v.26.Variables with p-value <0.25 on bi-variable analysis were entered into multivariable logistic regression. Adjusted odds ratio and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were used to quantify the degrees of association. Variable with a p-value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant within the final model. Results: Total of 674 students were included in the analysis with response rate of 94%. The mean age of the study participants was 22.66±2.21 (SD). The magnitude of current substance use was 29.5 %( 29.5%, 95%CI: 25.96-33.04%). The current use of alcohol, khat, and tobacco was 145 (22.8%), 94 (14.8%), and 16(2.5%) respectively. Being male(AOR =1.95, 95%CI: 1.27-2.78, having pocket money greater than 1000ETB(AOR=2.27, 95%CI: 1.20-4.28), natural science students(AOR=1.80, 95%CI: 1.17-2.78), students having Merchant mother (AOR=1.96, 95%CI:1.09-3.51), and student’s family member with history of substance use (AOR=2.93, 95%CI:2.02-4.24) was independently associated with substance use. Conclusion and recommendation: The overall magnitude of substance use among Wallaga university undergraduate students is high. Sex, religion, pocket money, department stream, student’s mother occupation, family member with history of substance use was independently associated with substance use. So, Wallaga University including stakeholders like community around campus area, students family, NGO’s working on substance use should collaborate to tackle the problem. Generally, substance use among students demands special attention, and preventive measure and control should be taken.Keywords: Substance Use, Wallaga University, undergraduate students, factors, Ethiopia