Alcohol use disorder and its associated factors among residents in Southern Ethiopia during the era of COVID-19

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of alcohol use disorder and associated factors among residents of Dilla town, Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2021. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 666 randomly selected participants. Interview-assisted structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and alcohol use disorder identification test was employed to measure alcohol use disorder. The data were entered in to Epi info version 7 and exported in to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Both bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis were used to identify significant factors related with alcohol use disorder. In the multivariate model, variables with p value < 0.05 were considered as a statistical significant factor for the outcome variable. Finally, adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was computed to assess the strength of association. Results: The magnitude of alcohol used disorder during the past year was 30.6% (95% confidence interval: 25.5%–35.7%). Being male (adjusted odds ratio = 8.33, 95% confidence interval: (4.34, 15.98)), age of less than 33 years old (adjusted odds ratio = 1.78, 95% confidence interval: (1.06, 3.00)), current cigarette smoking (adjusted odds ratio = 2.49, 95% confidence interval: (1.42, 4.37)), current khat chewing (adjusted odds ratio = 6.23, 95% confidence interval: (3.8, 9.92)), high level of psychological distress (adjusted odds ratio = 7.69, 95% confidence interval: (4.16, 14.28)) and poor social support (adjusted odds ratio = 2.30, 95% confidence interval: (1.27, 4.18)) were significantly associated with alcohol use disorder. Conclusion: A large percentage of respondents in our sample had an alcohol use disorder. Alcohol use problems were linked to being men, under the age of 33 years old, current khat chewing, current cigarette smoking, a high level of psychological distress, and poor of social support. As a result, early screening, public health intervention programs and establishing appropriate referral linkages with mental health facilities are recommended.

Scoping review of assessment tools for, magnitudes of and factors associated with problem drinking in population-based studies

“…Hazardous/harmful alcohol use, also known as harmful/hazardous drinking, probable AUD, risky alcohol use, high-risk drinking, or hazardous, harmful, or dependent alcohol use, was defined as a score of ≥8 on the AUDIT in most studies including studies conducted in New Zealand,53 Norway,55 Brazil,107 108 South Africa,61 101 India,109–112 Kenya,113 Uganda,114 Nepal,115 Ethiopia,63 116–118 Malaysia,89 Thailand90 119 and Suriname 60. This definition is in keeping with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended cut-offs for problem drinking on the AUDIT 17.…”

“…Likewise, AUD comprising AA, AD, hazardous, harmful or dependent alcohol use was reported by 31 of 52 LMIC studies, including South Africa,57 61 80 101 Sri Lanka,79 Ethiopia,50 51 59 63 116–118 China,122 Brazil,49 52 107 108 India,109–112 Kenya,113 Uganda,114 Nepal,115 Cambodia,58 Malaysia,89 Thailand,90 119 Suriname60 and Mozambique120 (online supplemental file 4, table). Either current or lifetime prevalence of any AUD ranged from 4.1% to 41.0% in the overall sample, from 14.5% to 66.6% in males and from 2.0% to 33.4% in females.…”

“…Furthermore, 19 out of 52 studies in LMICs found that age was associated with problem drinking. Some studies reported that older age was associated with alcohol use and different types of problem drinking,49 51 59 92 101–103 112–115 127 128 while others found that younger age was associated with problem drinking 58 61 92 96 117 126…”

“…Seven studies from HICs35 56 70 72 73 76 88 found that male sex was associated with alcohol use and various types of problem drinking. Another 19 studies from LMICs found that male sex was associated with different forms of problem drinking 24 50 51 57–59 89 92 93 104 105 108 109 113 116–118 126 127…”

“…Three studies conducted in HICs73 and 15 in LMICs50 59 61 63 79 89 92 97 107 114–118 120 found associations between mental disorders and different forms of problem drinking. Only one HIC study found associations between medical problems like higher body mass index and being non-diabetic than diabetic39 and problem drinking.…”