Prevalence of alcohol consumption and associated factors among undergraduate medical student at Makerere university

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of alcohol consumption is high among young adults worldwide. This group is at risk for alcohol abuse and alcohol-related problems especially while they are within the college environment. Often at times, there is an assumption that medical students are well knowledgeable about the harmful effects of alcohol consumption, hence, they have been understudied and under-supported to overcome challenges relating to alcohol abuse. Objective: This study assessed the prevalence of alcohol consumption and its associated factors among medical students at Makerere University. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study with 200 participants aged 18-37 years who are students from Makerere College of Health Science. Descriptive analysis was conducted while presenting frequencies and percentages and odds ratios with respective confidence intervals were used to test for associations and their level of significance. STATA version 14 software was used for data analysis. Result: The prevalence of alcohol consumption was 45% (males: 65.6%, females: 34.4%). Among the alcohol consumers, the prevalence of binge drinking was 73.85% and 26.2% for males and females respectively. Factors significantly associated with alcohol consumption were, having parents who drank alcohol (OR = 10.1, 95% CI; 4.0–25.0), having a monthly allowance greater than ugx 500,000 (OR = 2.3, 95% CI; 1.1–4.6) and having academic stress (OR = 11.5, 95% CI; 4.2–31.1). Conclusion: Alcohol consumption and binge drinking rates were high among medical students at Makerere University. Therefore the university administration and parents should work together to put up measures that will ensure a reduction the practices