Substance abuse among students in Public Universities in Kenya

Objective: To investigate the association between HIV/STI and substance abuse among students in Public Universities in Kenya.

 Males 69% and females 31%.

 Only 30.5% had ever used tobacco while 17.1% were current users. Males accounted for 75% of current users compared to 25% amongst females.

 Of the current users, 84% believed that tobacco was not harmful to health. Two important sources of introduction to tobacco use were friends that accounted for 81% and relatives 18%.

Use of tobacco amongst significant others were: friends 24%, fathers 11.0%, relatives 6.2% and mothers 0.2%. The most common sources of supply were nearby shop outlets 51.1% and friends 14.4%.

Gender multivariate analysis of associations with daily smoking (adjusted for age, University, leisure activities and gender, respectively), parental monitoring exhibited a consistently protective, dose response effect.

Attending a place of worship and going to the movies were protective for females as was watching sports, whereas playing team sport was protective for males and attending a movie was a risk factor for females.  

Median age at initiation of smoking was 17 years which did not vary according to Universities.

Research by:      Magu D, Mutugi MW, Ndahi LW, Wanzala P