Binge drinking and associated risk factors amongst students in a South African university

Abstract

Alcohol consumption was one of the leading risks for death and disability globally in 2018 among the 15-29 years age group, with 3.8% female and 12.2% male deaths attributable to alcohol use. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the prevalence of binge drinking and its associated risk factors amongst 917 students (female: n=500; male: n=417; age range: 18 to 43 years) of the University of Limpopo, South Africa. Information about their alcohol consumption, the type of alcohol and the practice related to alcohol consumption was collected using a validated questionnaire. Logistic regression model was used to determine the association between alcohol consumption and its predictors. The prevalence of binge drinking was significantly (p<0.05) high for males (34.8%) compared to females (19.6%). The larger proportion of males (24.7%) had an age on onset of < 15 years compared to females (8.8%). The use of tobacco products (cigarette smoking, pipe smoking, snuff and chewing tobacco) were significantly (P-value ranged from < 0.000 to 0.05) associated (OR= 4.42 95%CI 3.12 6.24) with binge drinking amongst the students aged 17 to 43 years even after adjusting for age, gender and monthly bursary deposited into their accounts (OR=3.91 95%CI 2.75 5.57). The university students had a high prevalence of binge drinking (26.5%), with the tendency being particularly high in male students in contrast to their female peers. Future studies are needed to investigate the relationships longitudinally between the students’ lifestyle changes and health outcomes associated with binge drinking.