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Background: Substance abuse among university students in Kenya is currently a major
public health concern. Drugs such as tobacco and alcohol are now widely and easily
available in the universities. Colleges therefore form the main locus of substance
abuse, with more than 40% of students already affected. Health care professionals are
believed to be the lead in healthy practices but as well can be a serious source of safety rooms outside are more likely to use/abuse substances compared to their counterparts
living in the hostels (P;0.158;A.O.R;4.58,C.I;0.556-22.955). There was a strong association
between alcohol use and engagement in risky sexual behavior (X2=20.4, P: 0.001).
Students who take alcohol are more likely to suffer other effects such as quarrels
(16.8%), fights (12%), injuries (12.2%), loss of money/valuables (19.4%) and relationship
problems.
Conclusions: Substance use and consequently abuse among students at the college of
Health sciences is moderately high and there is a potential for this vice increasing
further. Behaviour change strategies should be designed to address this problem
among students at the college of health sciences.
lapses for patients if they engage in substance misuse. Although this is a very
important subject area, studies regarding prevalence of substance abuse especially
among students undertaking health related courses remain scant.
Objective: The study sought to determine substance use/abuse and likely consequences
among student studying health related courses at a tertiary institution.
Study Setting: The study was conducted among students undertaking health related
courses in the College of Health Sciences within a large tertiary learning institution in
Western Kenya.
Study Subjects: The College of Health Sciences has four main schools; Medicine,
Nursing, Dentistry and Public Health. Two schools; school of Medicine and school of
Nursing were picked using simple random sampling. Proportionate sampling was then
applied to each group. In total, 376 students from both the Bachelor of Science in
Nursing and medicine programs were interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire.
Results: The main substance commonly used and abused among students in the college
of Health Sciences is alcohol. Other substances include; cigarettes, miraa and cannabis.
About 37% of all the students interviewed had ever consumed alcohol. Of those who
had taken alcohol, 35.6% were nursing students while 64.4% were medical students.
More males (56.8%) than females (43.2%) drink alcohol. Factors associated with
substance abuse include: gender; females are less likely to use/abuse substances
compared to males (P;0.007, A.O.R; 0.518, C.I.0.373 - 0.908), religion; Muslim students
are less likely to participate to use/abuse substances compared to other religions
(P;0.005; A.O.R;0.173 C.I;0.046-0.504) and type of student residence; students renting |
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