Heavy khat (Catha edulis) chewing and dyslipidemia as modifiable hypertensive risk factors among patients in Southwest, Ethiopia: Unmatched case-control study

Current khat (Catha edulis F.) use among Ethiopian women and its association with anemia and underweight: A cross-sectional analysis from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey

BACKGROUND

Chewing fresh leaves of Catha edulis (khat) is a popular pastime activity among Ethiopians where 12% women chew it. Reports show that khat use has been associated with poor nutritional status. This study aimed to determine whether khat chewing is linked to underweight and anemia.

METHOD

We analyzed data from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). The EDHS used two stage stratified cluster sampling to collected data from 16,650 households. We used data from a total of 15,683 respondents and 1904 respondents who chewed ever chewed khat in their lives. We used Pearson's chi-square, and logistic regression while stratifying by residence (urban vs rural) to control for confounders.

RESULT

Our results indicated 10.7% (95%CI: 10.92,11.26) of women chewed khat for an average of 16.5 days in the previous month. A woman's current khat chewing status was significantly associated with age, educational level, region, religion, wealth group, and marital status. Women aged 40-44 were significantly more likely to chew (AOR = 2.89,) compared to those aged 15-19. Compared with Protestant women, Muslim women were 210 times more likely (AOR = 210, 95% CI 102,435.7) to chew and women in the poorest wealth quintile had 73% higher odds (AOR = 1.73, 95% CI 1.22,2.44) of chewing khat when compared with the richest. Anemia was not associated with a woman's chewing status, whereas rural women who chewed khat for more than 26 days in a month had a 78% increased risk (OR = 1.78) of being underweight when compared to non-chewers.

CONCLUSION

Khat chewing is associated with sociodemographic factors and current khat use is associated with a higher risk of underweight among women living in rural areas. Implementing targeted awareness campaigns for women about the risks of khat chewing is recommended.

Dyslipidemia and its predictors among adult workers in eastern Ethiopia: An institution-based cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION

Dyslipidemia is a modifiable major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Although, the prevalence of dyslipidemia in high-income countries has been well documented, there is dearth of information about the dyslipidemia among working adults in sub-Saharan African countries including Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude of dyslipidemia and its associated factors among Haramaya University employees, in Eastern Ethiopia.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,200 university employees aged 20 to 60 years. Study participants were selected using a simple random sampling method. Data were collected face-to-face interview using a semi-structured questionnaire. Dyslipidemia was defined as unhealthy levels of one or more lipid profile such as high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides or total cholesterol. Data were entered into Epidata version 3.1 and analyzed using STATA version 16.1 software. Modified Poisson regression with robust variance was used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) with its 95% confidence intervals. Statistical significance was declared at P-value < 0.05.

RESULTS

Of 1,164 participants, 59.6% participants had at least one lipid abnormality (i.e., 57.9% among men and 61.5% among women). Of which, 36.8% had high total cholesterol (TC), 21.6% had low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), 22.4% had high low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and 32.6% had high triglyceride (TG). We found that overweight/obesity, sedentary behavior, alcohol consumption, having hypertension and age 45 and above years were significant predictors of dyslipidemia. However, those who served fruit and vegetables more than five per day had significantly reduced prevalence ratio of dyslipidemia.

CONCLUSIONS

The high prevalent dyslipidemia among university employees is an important public health problem. Hence, tailored interventions to reduce overweight/obesity, hypertension, alcohol consumption and low fruit and vegetable intake have paramount importance to tackle dyslipidemia particularly among older age.

Impact of khat leaves on glycosylated haemoglobin and lipid profile in healthy individuals in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Objective:

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of Catha edulis leaves on glycosylated haemoglobin and lipid profiles in healthy individuals in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.

Method:

A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the effect of khat leaves on the glycated haemoglobin and lipid profile in the Dire Dawa population. For the study, 100 male subjects (aged ⩾20–⩽40 years) were recruited and divided into two groups, each consisting of 50 subjects: the first group was khat chewing people while the other group was non-khat chewing individuals. Blood samples were collected and tested to evaluate the glycated haemoglobin and lipid profiles.

Results:

The mean glycated haemoglobin value of khat chewers was 5.33% and for non-chewers, it was 5.48%, respectively. Since p value is less than the significance value, the t-test supports the reduction in glycated haemoglobin values in khat chewers. The mean values of total cholesterol, and triglycerides in khat chewers are 175.2 and 172.92, and for non-chewers they are 168.7 and 164.56, respectively.

Conclusion:

From this study, we concluded that Catha edulis leaves have a significant effect on glycosylated haemoglobin levels. Mean glycated haemoglobin values of long-term healthy khat chewers are comparatively less than healthy non-chewers. Long-term khat chewing increases total cholesterol levels and triglycerides levels but there is no significant effect on the high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein levels.