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Use of alcohol and other substances remains a major health concern among higher learning institutions. This study aimed at assessing the 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%) students reported ever using alcohol and 158 (24.0%) had used in last 3 months. Seventy-four (11.2%) students reported ever use of other substances including tobacco, cannabis, cocaine, stimulants sedatives and hallucinogens and 36 (5.5%) had used within the recent 3 months. After controlling for potential confounders, 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. There is need for universities to identify students with above factors and design interventions to address them in order to prevent the likely undesirable outcomes of alcohol and substance use., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected malaria control activities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) resulting in 690,000 excess deaths in the year 2021. The authors hypothesized that COVID-19 affected the World Health Organization (WHO) Test, Treat and Track (T3) strategy that has been implemented in Uganda since 2010. In this study, health worker's adherence to the T3 strategy during COVID-19 pandemic in Eastern Uganda was studied by assessing their knowledge, skills and practices., Methods: A cross-sectional study utilizing mixed quantitative and qualitative data collections methods was conducted at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in Eastern Uganda between November and December in 2020. Data were captured on demographics, knowledge, skills and practices for both health workers (HWs) and patients. Quantitative data were analysed using STATA 15.0 and reported as descriptive statistics, proportions and statistical associations. Moreover, qualitative data were collected via key informant interviews (KII) among purposively sampled study participants and analysed thematically using NVIVO software. Ethical approval was obtained prior to the study., Results: A total of 436 study participants, of whom 103/436 (24%) and 333/436 (76%) were HWs and patients, respectively were studied. Among the HWs with mean age of 34 years (SD = 8.8 years), 81/103 (79%) had good practices, most 63/103 (61%) had good knowledge, and only 11/103 (10.7%) had good skills. Specifically, on the cadres, the laboratory personnel 19/103 (18%) had good knowledge 14/19 (74%) OR: 2.0 (95% CI 0.7-6) and were highly skilled OR: 4.6 (95% CI 1.2-18.1; P < 0.0150) compared to other cadres, respectively. Among the patients whose age ranged 3 months to 80 years (mean 17.8 years) and females 177/333 (53%); a majority 257/333 (77%) were tested, of whom 139/333 (42%) tested positive. Out of the positive cases, 115/333 (35%) were treated and tracked. About 75/333 (23%) were not tested but treated for malaria. Of the 168/239 (70.3%) patients tested, 115/168 (68.5%) were positive and treated, P = 0.0001. The KII revealed low level of In-service training, overwhelming number of patients and stock-out of supplies as a key factor for poor HW adherence to T3 strategy., Conclusions: During COVID-19 pandemic period HWs adherence to T3 initiative was low as 27% malaria patients did not receive treatment., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19 years globally, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) accounting for 99% of global maternal deaths of women aged 15-49 years. Despite teenage pregnancies declining in many developing countries in recent years, the COVID-19 period intensified the problem and altered the trend for most countries. We determined the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on the teenage pregnancy trend in Pakwach district, Uganda, to understand its magnitude in our study population., Methods: Using interrupted time series analysis (ITS), sometimes known as quasi-experimental time series analysis. We constructed a time series of the first ANC service utilization records for girls aged 10-19 years in Pakwach district, Uganda, and conducted an interrupted series analysis. We compared the two periods of March 2019 to March 2020 and March 2020 to March 2021. We used Stata 15 to conduct our analysis, performed OLS, and plotted the results., Results: The teenage pregnancy trend before the lockdown was decreasing by - 0.203 pregnancies per month, but in the first month after the institution of the lockdown (March 20, 2020), there was an increase in the teenage pregnancy rate of 13.9 pregnancies [95% CI: - 33.6 to 61.5], which corresponds to an increase in the monthly trend in teenage pregnancies (relative to the period before the COVID-19 lockdown trend) of 1.53 girls per month., Conclusion: Teenage pregnancies increased during the lockdown. This slight increase depicted the impact of the pandemic on the teenage pregnancy trend associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. The government needs to focus on intervention to reduce this trend and avoid any further increases., (© 2023. The Author(s).)