1. Alcohol use in early and late adolescence among the Birth to Twenty cohort in Soweto, South Africa
- Author
-
Shane A. Norris, Leane Ramsoomar, Neo K. Morojele, and CARNEGIE CORPORATION TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME AT the UNIVERSITY of the WITWATERSRAND for the funding provided to support this paper, and the funders of Bt20: University of the Witwatersrand, South African Medical Research Council, Human Sciences Research
- Subjects
Male ,maternal correlates ,Multivariate analysis ,adolescent alcohol use ,Adolescent ,Alcohol Drinking ,socio-economic status ,Building New Knowledge Supplement ,Poison control ,Mothers ,Developmental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Sex Factors ,Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) ,Risk Factors ,Adolescent alcohol use, alcohol prevalence, maternal correlates, socio-economic status ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Injury prevention ,Prevalence ,Medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Risk factor ,Socioeconomic status ,Marital Status ,business.industry ,030503 health policy & services ,Health Policy ,alcohol prevalence ,lcsh:Public aspects of medicine ,1. No poverty ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Age Factors ,lcsh:RA1-1270 ,medicine.disease ,3. Good health ,Logistic Models ,Socioeconomic Factors ,Cohort ,Multivariate Analysis ,RA421-790.95 ,Marital status ,Educational Status ,Female ,Public Health ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Demography - Abstract
Background : Alcohol is a risk factor for the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among young people globally. Youth drinking, initiated in early adolescence and continued into early adulthood, is influenced by maternal socio-demographic factors and maternal education. Limited prospective data exists in South Africa on the prevalence of alcohol use during adolescence and adolescent and maternal socio-demographic correlates. Objective : To examine the prevalence of lifetime alcohol use during early (13 years) and late (18 years) adolescence in Soweto, South Africa, and its association with child and maternal socio-demographic factors. Methods : Data on alcohol use in early adolescence (age 13 years) and late adolescence (age 18 years) were collected using self-completed pen and paper and self-completed computer-based questionnaires, respectively. Univariate analyses were conducted on child (gender and number of school years repeated by grade 7), maternal socio-demographic correlates (education, marital status, and age), and household socioeconomic status (SES). Bivariate logistic regression analyses examined associations between alcohol use and all child and maternal socio-demographic factors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted on all the variables found to be significantly (p< 0.10) associated with alcohol use to examine the predictive value on alcohol use at early and late adolescence. Results : Lifetime alcohol use increased from 22% at early adolescence to 66% at late adolescence. In multivariate analyses, gender, maternal education, and SES predicted lifetime alcohol use at early adolescence, while gender, maternal education, marital status, and SES were predictive of the same at late adolescence. Conclusion : This study aids researchers and practitioners to identify maternal and child socio-demographic risk profiles for alcohol use to inform policies and programmes. Keywords : adolescent alcohol use; alcohol prevalence; maternal correlates; socio-economic status (Published: 24 January 2013) Citation: Glob Health Action 2013, 6 : 19274 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v6i0.19274
- Published
- 2013