Background: -Even though many people chew khat simply for its pleasurable and stimulatory effect, evidence showed widely-held belief among khat chewers in Ethiopia and other part of the world that khat helps to lower blood glucose while some studies are contradicted on the effect of khat. There is limited data about khat effect on blood glucose specially in our setting. Therefore, this study aims to investigate this issue Objective: The aim of this study was to compare mean fasting blood sugar level among khat chewer and khat chewer diabetic and healthy subjects. And also, to asses risk factors associated with poor glycemic control in diabetic subjects. Method: A cross-sectional study include 200 confirmed diabetic and healthy subjects. FBS was determined by enzymatic method (GOD&GHK). Glycemic control was also determined for diabetic subjects based on the last 2-month diabetic clinic visits and current measurement. SPSS version 21 is used for data analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate factors associated with poor glycemic control. P<0.05 was taken to be statistically significant. Result: Of the total respondents 83(41.5%) and 117(58.5%) were male and female respectively. Without age and gender adjustment the overall Mean±SD FBS difference among khat chewers and non-khat chewers were 172±48 and 202±46 mg/dl respectively in diabetic subjects when tested by GOD. Similarly, in healthy non-khat chewers and khat chewers, khat chewers have lower (Mean±SD) fasting blood glucose level (80±8.6) mg/dl than that of the non khat chewers (91±6.7) mg/dl when tested by GOD. Regarding risk factors associated with poor glycemic control in diabetic subjects, in multivariate logistic regression analysis, positive parental diabetes history, insulin, being overweight, obese were significantly associated with poor glycemic control while eating vegetables regularly was found to be associated with good glycemic control. Conclusion: -There was significant effect of khat on mean FBS among khat chewer and non-khat chewer in diabetic and apparently healthy individuals. And the proportion of glycemic control was high among diabetic subjects. Health care professional and patients should manage the risk factors to delay disease progression and restrain the damage.

Keywords: Khat, fasting blood sugar, diabetes mellitus, risk factors.