Magnitude and associated factors of substance use among pregnant women attending antenatal care in public hospitals of eastern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Use of substances like alcohol, tobacco and khat during pregnancy can bring miscarriage, prematurity, neurodevelopmental problems, sudden infant death syndrome and others. There are limited studies on the magnitude and associated factors of substance use among pregnant women in Eastern Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and associated factors of substance use among pregnant women attending antenatal care in public hospitals of Easttern Ethiopia, 2019. METHOD: Hospital based cross-sectional study was employed on 510 pregnant women attending ANC at public hospitals of Eastern Ethiopia (Jigjiga, Dire Dawa and Harar towns). Data were collected from the study participants that were selected using systematic sampling method from each public hospital. The data were collected through interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regressions with 95% confidence interval were used to determine the degree of association between covariates and outcome variable. Multicollinearity between independent variables by using the standard error was checked. The goodness of fit was tested by Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic and Omnibus tests. RESULTS: Out of 526 participants, a total of 510 study participants were involved in this study thereby making a response rate of 96.9%. In this study, the magnitude of substance use among pregnant women attending ANC was 26.5% (95% CI: 22.7, 30.6%). Among the overall pregnant mothers, 100 (19.6%) chewed khat, 48 (9.4%) drank alcohol, 12 (2.4%) used tobacco products and 28(20.7%) were dual substance users. Pre pregnancy substance use (AOR = 27.25, CI: 14.107–52.66), partner substance use (AOR = 3.704 CI: 1.839–7.464), family substance use (AOR = 3.447 CI: 1.69–7.031) and the amount of monthly household income (AOR = 3.397, 95% CI: 1.316–8.766) were found to be statistically significant and positively associated with substance use during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: The magnitude of antenatal substance use in the study area was 26.5%. Pre- pregnancy substance use, partner substance use, monthly house hold income and family substance use were found to be positively associated with substance use during pregnancy. Therefore, health education which is inclusive of child bearing age women with their partner and family may be helpful to decrease antenatal substance use during pregnancy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-021-03078-5.