Burden of alcohol and other substance use and correlates among undergraduate students at Busitema University in rural Eastern Uganda after COVID-19 lockdown

Use of alcohol and other substance remains a major health concern among higher learning institutions. This study aimed at assessing prevalence of alcohol and other substance use among students at Busitema University in Eastern Uganda. A cross sectional survey was conducted among 658 undergraduate students using a questionnaire consisting of Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Tool and participant sociodemographic and clinical factors. Logistic regression was used to explore the associations. Two hundred sixty-five (40.3%) reported ever using alcohol and 158 (24.0%) had used in last 3 months, while 74 (11.2%) reported ever use of other substances including tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, stimulants sedatives and hallucinogens and 36(5.5%) had used within the recent three months. Recent alcohol use was associated with engaging in romantic relationship (odd ratio(OR) = 1.9, P value ( p ) = 0.045) while having chronic medical conditions was protective (OR = 0.3, p  = 0.031). On the other hand, recent use of other substances was 7 times higher among males (OR = 7.0, p =  0.008) compared to females while fourth year of study was protective (OR = 0.05, p  = 0.011). Although alcohol use is a worsening challenge among university students, use of other substances is also highly prevalent after COVID-19 lockdown. Most of the associated factors are modifiable which calls for interventions to address them in order to prevent the likely undesirable outcomes.