Abstract
BackgroundAlcohol use and hazardous drinking have been studied in school children and in urban areas of Kenya, but there has been no adult survey of these issues in a rural household population.MethodsThis study reports the prevalence of alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking in a household survey of a demographic surveillance site in rural Kenya. Information collected included demographic characteristics, socio-economic factors, recent life events and perceived social support. Alcohol consumption was assessed by questions about quantity and frequency. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) measured hazardous alcohol use. The Clinical Interview Schedule- Revised assessed common mental disorder, and the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire indicated the presence of psychotic symptoms.ResultsThe study found that lifetime and current alcohol consumption were 10.8 % and 9.2 % respectively. Current alcohol consumption was significantly higher in men (OR 0.4, p < 0.001 for women) and in the self-employed (OR 1.8, p = 0.013), after adjustment for factors significant at the bivariate level.Hazardous drinking was significantly higher in men (OR 0.3, p < 0.001 for women), people living in larger households (OR 1.8, p = 0.021), people who were single (OR 1.7, p = 0.093), and in those who are self-employed (OR 1.8, p = 0.036), after adjustment for factors significant at the bivariate level.ConclusionThis study suggests that alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking in the general population in a poor rural area in Nyanza Province is still relatively low. This represents an important public health educational opportunity to keep such rates low before increasing income and employment opportunities enable higher access to alcohol and other substances, and before the higher consumption found by studies on urban youth, especially neighbouring Kisumu town, spreads to the rural areas.
Highlights
Alcohol use and hazardous drinking have been studied in school children and in urban areas of Kenya, but there has been no adult survey of these issues in a rural household population
Subsistence farming, animal husbandry and fishing are the main economic activities in the area. Data for this analysis were drawn from a wider epidemiological household survey of psychiatric morbidity, immunity and malaria in a demographic surveillance site in rural Kenya to examine the prevalence of alcohol use and hazardous drinking, and their associated sociodemographic and psychosocial risk factors
Overall findings This study reports the prevalence of current and life time alcohol use and hazardous drinking in a health and demographic surveillance site in a rural area of Kenya, near Lake Victoria, and found that current alcohol consumption was 9.2 %, with lifetime use only marginally higher at 10.8 %
Summary
Alcohol use and hazardous drinking have been studied in school children and in urban areas of Kenya, but there has been no adult survey of these issues in a rural household population. Despite the Western evidence on the contribution of alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking to morbidity and mortality, there is a dearth of epidemiological studies in low and middle income countries. In Kenya, there have been epidemiological studies of harmful use of alcohol in adults attending medical facilities [20], schools [21], and small scale surveys [22, 23]. There has been a larger scale survey examining prevalence of alcohol use with sociodemographic factors including poverty, marital status, sex and age in western Kenya [24]. This paper used the opportunity of a wider epidemiological survey of psychiatric morbidity in a demographic surveillance site in rural Kenya to examine the prevalence of alcohol use and hazardous drinking, and their associated socio-demographic and psychosocial risk factors
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