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Background: Substance abuse among university students is an evolving concern among young person’s today with grave consequences on health and well-being. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and prevalence of substance abuse among university students in order to identify appropriate preventive measures. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 771 undergraduate students of the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, using pretested self-administered questionnaire. Respondents were selected by a multistage sampling technique, data collected were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25.0. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.050 at 95% confidence interval. Results: The mean age of respondents studied was 23.2 ± 2.3 years. Six hundred and sixty-four (97.2%) of the respondents had good knowledge of substance abuse. The life time prevalence of substance use was 44.4% (n=342) while recent prevalence of substance use was 68.1% (n= 233). Faculty of students (OR=2.320; CI=1.379 - 2.434; p<0.001), religion (OR: 0.452; CI: 0.048-0.282; p<0.001), family type (OR: 0.240; CI: 1.215-3.118; p=0.006), monthly allowance (OR: 0.375; CI: 1.541-6.707; p=0.002) and knowledge of substance use (OR: 0.235; CI: 0.075-0.740; p=0.013) were identified as significant predictors of substance use. Conclusion: Despite good knowledge of substance abuse and health implications a little less than half of the respondents used substances. There is need to reduce the prevalence of substance use through targeted health educational interventions among this target population.
Obi et al. (Tue,) studied this question.