Assessment of substance use and associated factors among high school and preparatory school students of Ginnir Town, Bale Zone, Southeast Ethiopia

Substance use remains high among youth and young adolescent in high school and college. The use of alcohol, Khat and Tobacco by high school and college student can be harmful, leading to decrease academic performance, increase risk of contributing HIV and other sexual transmitted disease. However, the magnitude of substance use and other factor associated with it has not been investigated among high school and preparatory school students in the country. The objective of this study is designed to assess the prevalence and associated factor of substance use among high school and preparatory schools of Ginnir town. Cross sectional study using a self administrated questionnaire was conducted to collect information about substance use among high school and preparatory school students in Ginnir town by taking total sample size of students. The result shows that total of 220 students were included in the study out of this most of the respondents were male 125(56%).The prevalence of substance use among male respondents were 31.2% ever drunk alcohol,48% khat chew and 12% ever smoke cigarette .while 8.4%,8% and 7% of female were ever drunk alcohol ,khat chew and smoke cigarette respectively. Problem associated with substance use include violence (39.1%), any medical problem (42.1%), poverty (54.3%). It can be concluded that the prevalence of substance use among high school and preparatory students was high and causes social impact such as violence, crime and poor school performance and medical impact such as unprotected sex, mental problem. Strong measure need to be taken for greater awareness among respondents to reduce its prevalence and impacts. (Social, medical, economic).