Psychoactive substance uses among people living with HIV/AIDS in Western Ethiopia: a multi-centered facility-based cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background

Substance use is very prevalent among HIV-infected people. We examined psychoactive substance use and tobacco smoking among people living with HIV/AIDS in West Ethiopia.

Methods

An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regressions were done to identify the factors associated with alcohol intake, current smoking, and khat use. The variables found significant with a p-value < .2 at bivariable were treated as candidates for the multivariable regression model. P-values of < .05 and 95% CI level were used as statistically significant differences for the final models.

Results

A total of 418 participants were included in the study, making the response rate 88%. About 152 (36.4%) were khat chewers (36.4, 95%CI: 31.6–40.9) and 175 (41.9%) with 95% CI (37.6–46.4) of them are current smokers. Lack of formal education (AOR = 3.82, 95% CI: 1.36, 10.67), strong social support (AOR = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.59), urban resident (AOR = 3.52, 95%CI: 1.32, 9.34), and being single (AOR = 11.84; 95% CI: 2.4, 8.57) were found to be significantly associated with psychoactive substance use among people living with HIV/AIDS.

Conclusion

This study found that there are higher psycho-active substance users among people infected with HIV compared to the national data level of the same group of population.

KEYWORDS:

• Cigarette smoking
• HIV/AIDS
• substance use
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgments

We thank data collectors and study participants.

Authors’ contribution

DS, ET, and QD conceived the study, developed the tool, coordinated the data collection activity, and carried out the statistical analysis, interpretations of the results, and manuscript write-up. BRF, GF, ST, HB, LB, TS, BOA, and AS participated in developing the tools, data analysis, and involved in report write-up. ET, GF, and DS made substantial contributions in result writing and reviewing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

Data will be available upon request from the corresponding authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

Ethical clearance and permission were obtained from the Institutional Review Board at the Research Center for Public Health, Tsinghua University (Project Number: 20,204,001,304), and permission was secured from Nekemte Specialized Hospital and Wollega University Teaching and Referral Hospital and submitted to ART focal persons in each hospital. Written informed consent was obtained from clients before the data collection.

Additional information

Funding

This study was not funded.