Abstract

During the University period, students experience independence and freedom from direct adult and family
supervision, self-decision and intense academic pressures as well as sharing living quarters with people they barely
know. They also form new social groups and may be exposed to values different from their parental values. These
new values may motivate the youth to indulge in unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use.
Undergraduate students make the transition from a restricted life monitored by parents to a more self-directed life
influenced by the university environment and as such, the risk of substance use was increased in university
environments. The study sought to determine the prevalence and establish the determinants of substance use
among students at Kampala International University-Western Campus. A cross-sectional observational and
analytic study design was utilized. A total of 176 randomly selected participants were recruited in the study.
Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with substance use.
Odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval were computed to determine the level of significance. The majority of
the study participants 125 (71.02%) were female participants whereas the minority of participants 51 (28.98%)
were males. The majority of study participants 54 (30.68%) of the study participants belonged to the catholic
religion. The prevalence of substance use among the study participants was 56.82% (100). The most used
substance abuse was alcohol, followed by marijuana and shisha. The substances of abuse least used were cocaine,
gasoline, and opium. Poor role modelling by teachers, Stressful finance clearing, too much freedom at campus, and
weight management were independently significantly associated with substance use among study participants.
This study has shown that the level of substance abuse was high among the students at KIU-WC. Most of the
determinants of substance use were due to school-related factors such as stressful financial clearing, poor role
modelling by lecturers, and too much freedom on campus. Lecturers should portray a good example to the
students since poor role modelling was found to be associated with substance use. Parents should endeavour to
provide all the financial needs to their sons and daughters.
Keywords: University environment, Substance abuse, Parents, Students, Alcohol.