Drinking practices and alcohol-related problems among Nigerian students

Abstract

Background: Alcohol-related problems are increasing among Nigerian University students. However, very few studies have explored the ways in which hazardous drinking practices facilitate these problems in Nigerian University students, aside from quantitative studies focussing on students in South-Western Nigeria.

Methods: Drawing on qualitative semi-structured interviews involving students from a South-Eastern Nigerian University, this study begins to address these gaps. The participants were recruited through convenience and snowballing sampling techniques, and the data were analysed thematically.

Results: The findings show that 24 out of 31 participants engaged in heavy drinking by consuming between 3 and 9 bottles of beer/stout or flavoured spirits regularly. These heavy drinkers had suffered financial, academic, and health problems. Some lost valuable personal items such as mobile phones, wallets, and money as a result of drinking, while others missed examinations because drinking had rendered them either too ill or had caused them to oversleep and missed the examination. Almost all participants had suffered multiple health-related problems such as hangovers, accidents and injuries, liver enlargement, stomach ache, attempted suicide (under the influence of alcohol), and sex with strangers.

Conclusion: Evidence-based public health interventions to address easy alcohol availability and heavy drinking should be implemented in Nigerian Universities.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• alcohol-related problems
• drinking practices
• Nigeria
• students

Notes

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the interviewees, without whom this study would not have been possible. I also thank Drs Neil Stephens, John Gardner and Melissa Mialon, for their contributions, comments and suggestion on the earlier draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The data from the pilot phase were not included in the analysis of this paper. They only informed the design of the main study protocol.

2 In this study, ‘heaving drinking’ is defined as consuming 3 or more bottles of beer (beers in Nigeria contain between 5 and 5.5% ABV), stout (7.5% ABV), wine (12–17% ABV) or spirit (17+ ABV). As there are no alcohol policies in Nigeria (World Health Organization, 2018), standard drinks are not defined, hence the use of number of bottles of alcoholic beverages and the ABV they contain.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUD), Nigeria.