Do Religion and Religiosity Have Anything to Do With Alcohol Consumption Patterns? Evidence From Two Fish Landing Sites on Lake Victoria Uganda

Abstract

Fish landing sites have high levels of harmful use of alcohol. This paper examines the role of religion and religiosity on alcohol consumption at two fish landing sites on Lake Victoria in Uganda. Questionnaires were administered to randomly selected people at the sites. Dependent variables included alcohol consumption during the previous 30 days, whereas the key independent variables were religion and religiosity. Bivariate and multivariate analysis techniques were applied. People reporting low religiosity were five times more likely to have consumed alcohol (95% confidence interval: 2.45–10.04) compared with those reporting low/average religiosity. Religion and religiosity are potential channels for controlling alcohol use.

Keywords :

• Religion
• religiosity
• fisherfolk
• alcohol consumption
• harmful use of alcohol

Notes

2 The reader is reminded that the concepts of “risk factors,” as well as “protective factors,” are often noted in the literature, without adequately noting their dimensions (linear, nonlinear, rates of development, anchoring or integration, cessation, etc.), their “demands,” the critical necessary conditions (endogenously as well as exogenously, from a micro to a meso to a macro level), which are necessary for either of them to operate (begin, continue, become anchored and integrate, change as de facto realities change, cease, etc.) or not to and whether their underpinnings are theory driven, empirically based, individual and/or systemic stakeholder bound, based upon “principles of faith,” historical observation, precedents, and traditions that accumulate over time, perceptual and judgmental constraints, “transient public opinion.” or what. This is necessary to consider and to clarify if these terms are not to remain as yet additional shibboleth in a field of many stereotypes, tradition-driven activities, “principles of faith,” and stakeholder objectives. Editor's note

3 The reader is referred to Hills's criteria for causation, which were developed to help assist researchers and clinicians determine if risk factors were causes of a particular disease or outcomes or merely associated (Hill, 1965). Editor's not.