Patterns of Alcohol Consumption and Socio-Demographic Factors among Women in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The patterns of alcohol consumption among females  is of enormous public health concerns, as harmful consumption poses danger to their health, welfare, children and to the civil society. The study objectives were to determine the current prevalence of alcohol use, the related socio-demographic factors and the patterns of alcohol consumption. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study in Jos North Local Government Area, carried out from March to July, 2017 after ethical clearance was obtained. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the participants who were age 18 years and above. A total of 272 females with an age range of 18 to 60 years responded. The mean age was 28.8±8.6 years. Majority 112(41.2%) were in the age group of 25-34 years. Most of them were never married 168 (61.8%), protestants 151(55.4%) and had secondary education 97(35.7%). About half of them were employed (148(54.4%) with 167(61.4%) of them earned an average monthly income of 20,000 naira or less. One hundred and fifty nine (58.5%) use alcohol in the family. The estimated prevalence of life time use, current use and abstention were 79.4%, 41.2% and 20.6% respectively. Of the current users 35(31.1%) were low risk while hazardous, harmful and dependent users were 30(26.8%), 21(18.8%) and 26(23.2%) respectively. The sociodemographic variables associated with current alcohol use were history of family use (χ2 = 3.088, df = 1, p = 0.01) and educational status (χ2 = 8.797, df = 3, p = 0.03). These findings call for immediate advocacy and sensitization of awareness concerning prevention, treatment and rehabilitation to stem the tide of deleterious patterns of alcohol consumption among females in the community.