Khat use prevalence and its associated factors among men in Mogadishu, Somalia

Abstract EN

Khat, known in Somalia as "qaad" or "jaad", is a plant whose leaves and stem tips are chewed for their stimulating effect.

Khat use is widely found to be socially accepted habit in most of the countries geographically situated where the herbal drug is cultivated and chewed as a recreational and socializing drug.

Khat has negative economic and health impact on the individuals engaging in the habit of khat chewing.

There were no studies conducted to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of khat chewing in the study area.

A cross sectional study was used.

A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents at a cluster sampling.

Quantitative data analysis was used.

This study took into consideration 385 respondents as sample size to determine feasible findings about topic under the study.

In general, more than half of the participants were khat chewers and the majority of them reported that they chew khat three or more times per week.

The prevalence of khat chewing is high among males aged 20 – 34 years in study area who are married, had informal education and had a total family income of USD ≤ 100 per month.

Finally, this study recommends increasing public awareness of the potential health hazards of khat chewing as well as integrating education about khat into the curricula of the primary and secondary schools in order to save the young generations and to encourage them to use other recreational things rather than khat chewing.