Prevalence of alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorders among outdoor drinkers in public open places in Nigeria

BACKGROUND There is a rapid shift in the social context of drinking, with a large proportion of regular drinkers favouring outdoor-open space drinking, such as motor-parks, by the road sides, the majority of which are unlicensed premises for drinking. METHOD This study determined the prevalence and determinants of harmful or hazardous alcohol use and possible dependence, defined as a "likely alcohol use disorder" (AUD) in a community sample of 1119 patrons of open space drinking places in Ibadan, Nigeria, using the AUDIT. Scores of 8 and above signified a likely AUD. The associations between a likely AUD and demographic characteristics were sought using Chi square statistics and binary regression analysis was used to determine the effects of multiple confounding variables on a likely AUD using the SPSS version 20.0 software. RESULTS Of the entire population, the prevalence of likely AUD was 39.5%, and 44.4% out of the drinking population Multivariate analysis showed that Islamic religion was a negative predictor for likely AUD, OR = 0.13, 95% CI (0.06-0.26), while rural residence, OR = 1.84, 95% CI (1.34-2.53) and cigarette smoking OR = 1.81, 95% CI (1.37-2.40) were predictive of likely AUD. CONCLUSION Outdoor-open space drinkers are likely to have AUD compared with the general population. Open space drinking has a huge public health implication because of the associated health risks and injuries.