Abstract;

Background: - Research regarding the health and wellness of medical students has led to ongoing concerns regarding patterns of alcohol and other substances use that take place during medical studies. World-wide evidence suggests that use of substances among medical students might be on the rise and may be related to various factors including family influence, peer pressure, poor academic results, stressful examination preparation, misunderstanding in relationships, need for appreciation to partners, loss of beloved ones and daily refreshment.

Objectives: To determine magnitude of substance use and associated factors among undergraduate medical students at CUHAS-BUGANDO.
Methodology; - Cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to determine the prevalence of use of substance and associated factors among undergraduate medical students at CUHAS. Simple random sampling procedure was applied to identify study participants. Semi structured questions and WHO student’s use of substances Questionnaires was used as instruments for data collection. Data entry, data cleaning and data analysis was done subsequently using SPSS-version 24 for Windows. Ethical clearances was obtained from CUHAS. Informed written consent were sought from eligible participants.

Results: the overall prevalence of substance use among undergraduate medical students at CUHAS was found to be 10.44%. Substance that found to be used by undergraduate medical students at CUHAS were tobacco products, alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine or khati, mirungi, hallucinogens, valium, sedatives such as phenobabiton, opium, heroin and other sniffed glue, aerosol spray, nail polish, paints). Factors associated with substance use was family influence, peer pressure, poor academic performance/results, stressful examination preparation, misunderstanding in a relationship, need for appreciation to partners and loss of beloved ones.

Conclusion: Prevalence of substance use is high in CUHAS among medical undergraduate students. Setting-specific interventions and innovations are critical to prevent substance use, given the observed differences between different factors. However this study results should not been generalized to the whole population as the study uses small number of sample size.