Drinking behaviour and social change among youths in Nigeria--a study of two cities

Earlier studies on alcohol use in Nigeria identified young and middle-aged male adults as mainly concerned. In the last decade however, there has been a noticeable trend of youths getting more and more involved in alcohol use. Some of these latter studies, apart from indicating the increasing involvement of the female sex, have also shown various pathologies associated with alcohol use in Nigeria youths. Most of these reports only looked at alcohol use in the broader context of drug and alcohol abuse in the Nigerian society. However, in the present cross-sectional study of drug use involving 2079 senior secondary school students in two major cities of Nigeria (Ibadan and Abeokuta), prevalence rates of alcohol use was 56% for Ibadan and 51.5% for Abeokuta. The male/female ratio of the users was 1.1:1 in Ibadan and 1.2:1 in Abeokuta. Males used alcohol significantly more than females in each of the two cities (P less than 0.025). Alcohol use was found more common among younger students in the lower school classes and also among those from higher and medium socioeconomic background. Among contributing factors were parental deprivation and delinquency. Alcohol users were also found to be more involved in accidents and the use of other psycho-active drugs than non-users.