Abstract:

Background: Alcohol consumption is a well-known public problem, particularly among university students associated with harmful use and increased drop outs from studies.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and factors influencing alcohol use among undergraduate students at CUHAS.

Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among undergraduates at CUHAS, using socio demographic and AUDIT questionnaires to obtain data.

Results: Out of 357 participants, 51.25% were male and 48.75% were female, majority of respondents aged between 18-25 years (80.2%). Large number of participants were single, 85.79%, with 5.29% of the participants co-habiting. Majority of the participants were studying Doctor of medicine, 57.94%. The study revealed that, 41.50% of participants have ever used alcohol, and 27.02% of the study participants are still using it. There was significant association between harmful alcohol use age with p value of 0.003 and residence with p value of 0.036.

Conclusion: Generally, alcohol use among university students and young adults is still a challenges as most of CUHAS students have ever used alcohol and most of them start using before coming to the university and during their first years of study, hence there should be remedials to facilitate detection of students at high risk of harmful alcohol use and enable them in stepwise quiting.