The Magnitude Of Khat Use And Its Association With Health Nutrition And Socio-economic Status

A house to house survey was carried out inrna rural Ethiopaian c ommunity to determinernprevalence of khat use and its association with t hernhealth ; nut ritional, and socio - economic statusrnusers . A total of 1200 adults were interviewed . Amongrnthese 60.9% were males and 79 . 1% Moslems. The curre l .rnprevalence of khat chewing was found to be 31 . 7%.rnMuslims more than Christians, males morernfemales, those beween t he ages 15 and 34 years mon 'rnthan other age groups were habitual users . Select cirnphysicalrninJuries,rnillnesses, (OR(95%C I ))=1.52(1,14,2.02 ).rn(OR(95%CI)=2.31(1.42,3.79), undernutrition.rnOR (95%CI) =1. 76 (1.24,2 . 48),rnOR (95%CI) =8 . 30 (5.20,13 . 31) ,rnassociated with khat use .rnmental distres rwerernfound to bernFamily function amOLrncurrent khat users was significantly higher than nonrnusers (OR95%CI ) = 1. 56 (1.04,2 . 28) . Thernfunction among current users was observed to be abou trn20% higher. It is concluded that a fairly larg~rnproportion of the population consumes khat and thel,'.rnthis is related to physical ill-health and meta l.rndistress, al though family and social functioning a n,rneconomic well-being seem to be unaffected.

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