Khat chewing and its association with mental distress among high school students in jimma town, southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: khat is a large green shrub grown in Eastern to Southern Africa and extends to Arabian Peninsula. Khat chewing has negative consequences on day to day life of the users. These include socio- economic impact, poor health and impaired quality of life. Adverse effects of khat chewing include impairment of perceptual-visual memory and decision making. Khat chewing is associated with frequently absenteeism from class and poor academic performance among students. Although khat has harmful consequences, little is known about khat use and mental distress among high school students in Ethiopia. Objectives: To assess khat chewing and its association with mental distress among high school students in Jimma town. Methods: A Cross sectional study design was used. Data was collected by using self-reported questionnaires (SRQ-20) which was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess symptoms of mental distress. Structured questionnaire was used to assess khat chewing and risky sexual behavior of the students. Data were entered into epi-data then exported and analyzed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS version 21). The association between dependent and independent variable was described by using binary and multiple logistic regressions. Variables with p-value less than 0.05 in multivariate logistic regression were declared as having significant association with the dependent variable. Result: The life time prevalence of khat chewing among Jimma city high school students was nearly 16%. Of these, 74.5% and 25.5% of them were male and female students respectively. However, current prevalence of khat chewing among these students was 14.2%. Out of this, 71.4 % and 28.6 % of them were male and females respectively. The prevalence of mental distress among the study participants was found to be 12.2%. Of this, 30.6% % and 69.4 % were male and females respectively. Out of students who had mental distress, 22.2 % of them were khat chewer. Younger age, being male, having sexual contact and suicidal ideation were independently associated with khat chewing. Conclusion: The high prevalence of khat chewing and mental distress found in our study highlights the need of necessary action to tackle khat related problems. Also, students with risky sexual behavior and suicidal ideation need immediate action from jimma town education bureau.