Effect of psychoactive substance use on academic activities and performance among undergraduates of University of Lagos

Background: The objective of this study was to assess the effect of psychoactive substance use on academic performance among university students of Lagos undergraduates. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study to assess psychoactive substance use and its relation to academic performance among undergraduate students of the University of Lagos. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the participants. Data was collected using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire adapted from WHO model core questionnaire self-administered format. Data was collected and analyzed using the free-liscence software package Epi-Info, version 7.2.2.16. Chi square and Fisher's exact were used to test for any significant association between psychoactive substances use and academic performance of the respondents. Level of significance (p) was set at 0.05. Result. Prevalence of psychoactive substance use was 28.6%. Male and female respondents were270 (69.77%) and 117(30.23%) respectively, with age range between 14 and 30 and mean age of 20.51 (SD)(±2.91) year. Alcohol was the most abused substance with 68.99%, this was followed by cigarette with 20.67% ever use prevalence. The mean age of first use of psychoactive substance was 16.31±3.89. Using the Grade Point Average system from the previous semester, majority of the respondents (87.08%) had GPA >2.50. Both frequency of studying and mean CGPA was statistically better among non-life time users and non-current users of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis in the male group. However there was no statical significance among female group. Using fischer exact test to assess the effect of age of first substance use and mean CGPA. The age of first substance use was statistically significant for tobacco p = 0.007. Conclusion. Psychoactive substance use among students was common and negatively associated with students’ academic performance especially among male gender.