Knowledge of alcohol-disease links and socio-demographic factors as predictors of support for alcohol-related policies among university students in Botswana

Abstract

Background: Worldwide, harmful alcohol use is causally related to about 60 diseases and is linked to about 3.3 million deaths annually. Yet, awareness of alcohol-disease links is low.Objective: This study aims to assess socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge of alcohol-disease links as predictors of support for alcohol-related policies.Methods: A survey of 615 university students (age = 19.8; SD = 1.6; 18–25) in Botswana assessed alcohol use and knowledge of alcohol-disease links as predictors of support for alcohol-related policies. T-tests and regression analyses were performed to estimate differences and predictors.Results: Forty per cent of respondents (n = 245) use alcohol, 38% (n = 93) of whom were hazardous users. Awareness of alcohol-disease links was low for diabetes (39%) and cancer (41%) but high for liver cirrhosis (89%) and injuries (87%). Female gender (relative to male) (β = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.27), harmful alcohol use (β = −0.49, 95% CI: −0.56, −0.42), higher maternal education (β = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.18), and more knowledge of alcohol-disease links (β = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.21) predicted support for policies.Conclusions: Awareness of alcohol-disease links was low. Support for policies was predicted by being female (relative to male), reporting no harmful alcohol use, having more educated mothers, and knowledge of alcohol-disease links. Improving awareness of alcohol-disease links could be an effective intervention to increase support for alcohol-related policies.