Abstract

Background: Substance abuse is widespread all over the world among adolescent and young adult during the last 25 years. It becomes one of the most threating and challenging social and public health problem.

Objective: To assess prevalence and factors associated to substance abuse among high school students, Ambo Town, 2018.

Methodology: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 508 randomly selected students from two secondary and two preparatory schools found in Ambo Town, Ethiopia. The sample size was calculated using a single population proportion formula and proportionally allocated to student in the classroom. Ba pre-tested structured questionnaire, FGD and key Informant interview were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0.

Result: The overall current prevalence of substance abuse among the respondents was 79 (16%). Specifically, 52 (10.5 %) were khat abusers, 13 (2.6%) were alcohol abusers, 19 (3.8%) were cigarette abusers and 5 (1.01%) were abuse shisha. Being a male, living in divorced/separated family, and living with peers/friends currently using substance, family drug use, having friends who take drugs in the school, Peer pressure and having a lot of pocket money showed a significant association with substance use behavior of respondents.

Conclusion: The current study shows high prevalence of substance abuse. Factors like male gender, poor parent child relationship, living through high level of family conflict, parental drug use, peer pressure, readily availability of drugs, pocket money, psychological factors, influence of mass media and living environment were significantly associated with substance abuse.

Keywords: Substance abuse; Ambo; Ethiopia