ABSTRACT

Inappropriate alcohol use among university students is a major global public health concern, due to its multiple and wide ranging direct or indirect effects on physical, psychosocial, and mental health. The study assessed the alcohol consumption pattern of undergraduate students in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and Abia State University Umuahia campus. The study employed the use of a descriptive and cross-sectional design. A non probability (snow ball) sampling technique was used to select 300 students from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and 131 students from Abia State University Umuahia campus. Data for the study was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire which was validated by lecturers in the department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics while the respondents weight and height, waist circumference and hip circumference of the respondents was used to derive the BMI and Waist-Hip Ratio. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to determine the prevalence of alcohol use and to identify persons with hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the students, while correlation was used to find the relationship between the alcohol consumption and anthropometric variables. The study found that more than half (57.8%) of the students were males, Most (52.0%) of the participants, earned less than N5000 monthly, more than half of the students (57.8%) lived off campus. A greater proportion (55.2%) of the population of fathers were civil servants, with Tertiary education level (45.2%). On alcohol consumption, more than half (69.1%) of the respondents consumed 5 bottles of alcohol 3-6 times per week. The result on alcohol consumption score audit showed that almost half (46.4%) of the respondents consumed 7-9 bottles of alcohol on a typical day, many (33.9%) consumed alcohol-based drinks monthly or less while majority (82.4%) had 6 or more alcoholic drinks at a sitting. Most of the respondents (52.4%) felt guilty after a drink monthly and (45.5%) did not get injured from alcohol consumption in the past year while (47.3%) of the respondents had concerns from individuals in the past year concerning their alcohol consumption. Lifestyle characteristics showed that majority (63.3%) spend hours per day on vigorous activities, less than half (28.3%) of the population engage in moderate physical activities weekly while more than half ( 55.9%) spends hours daily on moderate physical activities. On dietary habit, less than half (48.3%) of the population ate twice a day while about (62.6%) didn’t have time to eat enough food. About (36.2%) of the respondents skip meals with (45.7%) gave reasons for skipping as not being able to afford it and on religious beliefs. On anthropometry, a little above half (52.7%) of the population were within normal weight while 4.6% were obese. A greater proportion (61.3%) had normal waist-hip circumference while about (38.7%) were at risk. In conclusion the study reported a significant (p<0.05) negative relationship between religion and frequency of drinking alcohol (r = -0.146, p = 0.002), feeling of guilt after drinking (r = -0.258, p = 0.000), concerns about drinking from family and friends (r = -0.139, p =0.004) and injured because of alcohol (r = -0.158, p = 0.001), in conclusion, the result showed that most of the students were alcohol dependent meaning they need alcohol to have a good time and relax. Most of the students had good physical activity level as most walked to school. The study recommended that effective campus-based counselling, peer education, and national surveillance systems that can monitor risky drinking behaviours among youth should be developed and implemented.