Substance use and associated factors among Adolescents’ during the Covid-19 pandemic in Eastern Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

  1. Ebisa Zerihun
  2. Kenasa Tesema

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Abstract

Introduction

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been dramatic and wide-reaching, affecting many more than those who become ill, including reports of increased substance use among adolescents may be due to various restrictions of social life that disrupted adolescents’ daily lives. However, up to now, no data is showing the extent of substance use among adolescents in the study area.

Purpose

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of substance use and associated factors during the Covid-19 pandemic among school adolescents of west hararghe, Eastern Ethiopia to guide possible intervention and public policy.

Methods

A School-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from 10 to 30, October 2021. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 788 students from ten public secondary schools in the West Hararge zone, Eastern Ethiopia. The data were collected using a self-administered pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Data was entered into Epidata version and then exported to SPSS version 26 software for further analysis. Descriptive analysis was done. Multi variables binary logistic regression was done and a p-value less than 0.05 were used to declare statistical significance.

Results

In this study, the response rate of 98.46% were complete fill the questionnaires. More than 1 in 2 of the adolescent students were self-reported substances (alcohol, khat (Catha edulis) and/or cigarette) users (prevalence = 58.6%) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, chewing khat (Catha edulis) (57.87%), followed by alcohol user (21.73%), Cigarette smoking (14.85%) and, hashish consumption (5.54%). Age of students, family history of drinking alcohol, availability of substances were factors positively associated with substance use. On the other hand, family management is negatively associated with substance use.

Conclusions

The prevalence of substance users among adolescents was dramatically increased during the covid-19 pandemic in the west hararghe zone, Ethiopia. Hence, the authors hoped that these findings provide preliminary insights for refining mental health and addiction policies that are targeted at adolescent and their parents in these settings and guidance for further research.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.29.22273151: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethical considerations: Ethical clearance was obtained from the ethical review committee of Oda Bultum University and an official letter was submitted to the West Hararghe educational office.
    Field Sample Permit: Permission to conduct the research among students in the school was obtained from the school principal.
    Consent: After the purpose and the importance of the study were clearly explained, verbal informed consent was obtained from each participant and the information collected from each respondent was kept with complete confidentiality.
    Sex as a biological variableThere are about 50 public secondary schools in the West hararghe zone and there are about 54,260 students were enrolled in schools while as female 19737 (36.37%) and male 34523 (63.63%) students in 2021/2022 (West Hararghe Education bureau office September 02, 2021).
    RandomizationAll randomly Selected Secondary school students who were enrolled in the 2021 /2022 academic year found west Hararghe zone during the study period were the study population.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 26 software for analysis.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Strengthen and limitations: The main strength of this study was being that the first study identified the extent of adolescent substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia. However, there were some limitations in this study. First, some specifics of substance use attributes (e.g., history of use disorder, detailed categories, procurement sources, and adverse health effects) were not captured, thus requiring further research. Secondly, the study could not employ qualitative data, so it might not address more associated factors. Despite limitations, this study sheds important light on substance use trends and correlates among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2022.03.29.22273151v1 on medRxiv