Abstract:
Background: In today’s ultra-competitive environment, students face more stress than
ever, be it related to studying, examinations, or peer, teacher or parental pressure. They
face multiple stressors such as academic overload, constant pressure to succeed,
competition with peers and financial burden as well as concerns about the future.
However, its magnitude and association with substance use in postgraduate students is
not indicated well in Ethiopia.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess prevalence of stress among
postgraduate students and its association with substance use.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted on a sample of 360 postgraduate
students at Jimma University. The study participants were selected by using Computer
generated simple random sampling method after stratification and proportionally
allocated into colleges. The data were collected by using self-administered structured
questionnaires which contain sociodemographic characteristics, the General Health
Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Postgraduate Stressor Questionnaire (PSQ-28), and
Substance use questionnaire. Data were entered using Epi-Data Version 3.1 and
analyzed using SPSS Version 20.0 for Windows. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis
and multivariable logistic regression analysis were applied and statistically significance
was declared at p-value < 0.05.
Result: Majority of the respondents 256(74.0%) were males and the mean age of the
respondents was 29.34 (SD = 4.7) years. The current prevalence of stress was 46.2%
[95% CI 40.75%-51.25%]. Academic Related Stressor domain was the main source of
stress 184(53.2%) among postgraduate students. Stress was significantly associated
with female sex [AOR=1.90,95% CI(1.12-3.22)], single marital status
[AOR=1.74,95%CI(1.09-2.77)], khat chewing[AOR=1.99,95%CI(1.09-3.64)], and
cigarette smoking[AOR=2.10,95%CI(1.07-4.38)]. Whereas, alcohol drinking
[AOR=0.44, 95% CI, (0.25-0.77)] has protective role for stress.
Conclusion: The overall prevalence of stress among postgraduate students was found to
be high. Being female in sex, unmarried students, students of College of Agriculture and
Veterinary Medicine, khat chewing, and cigarette smoking were factors associated with
stress. Whereas, alcohol drinking has protective role from stress in this study. It is
recommended that stress needs due attention and remedial action from different
concerned bodies on the adverse effect of substance use, academic counseling and stress
reduction interventions.
