Alcohol use in early and late adolescence among the Birth to Twenty cohort in Soweto, South Africa

Abstract

Background: Alcohol is a risk factor for the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among young people Globally. Youth drinking, initiated in early adolescence and continued into early adulthood, is influenced by maternal socio-demographic factors and maternal education. Limited prospective data exists in South Africa on the prevalence of alcohol use during adolescence and adolescent and maternalsocio-demographic correlates.Objective: To examine the prevalence of lifetime alcohol use during early (13 years) and late (18 years) adolescence in Soweto, South Africa, and its association with child and maternal socio-demographic factors.MethodsData on alcohol use in early adolescence (age 13 years) and late adolescence (age 18 years) werecollected using self-completed pen and paper and self-completed computer-based questionnaires, respectively.Univariate analyses were conducted on child (gender and number of school years repeated by grade 7),maternal socio-demographic correlates (education, marital status, and age), and household socioeconomicstatus (SES). Bivariate logistic regression analyses examined associations between alcohol use and all childand maternal socio-demographic factors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted on all thevariables found to be significantly (pB0.10) associated with alcohol use to examine the predictive value onalcohol use at early and late adolescence.Results: Lifetime alcohol use increased from 22% at early adolescence to 66% at late adolescence. In multivariate analyses, gender, maternal education, and SES predicted lifetime alcohol use at early adolescence, while gender, maternal education, marital status, and SES were predictive of the same at late adolescence.Conclusion: This study aids researchers and practitioners to identify maternal and child socio-demographicrisk profiles for alcohol use to inform policies and programmes.