Risk factors for alcohol and drug misuse amongst young women in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa

ABSTRACT

Alcohol and drug misuse (ADM) pose a significant disease burden globally. Yet, there remains a gap in understanding risk factors associated with women’s ADM, particularly those in marginalised settings. We investigated risk factors associated with ADM amongst young women in urban informal settlements in South Africa. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted on a sample of 680 young women assessing associations between sociodemographic factors, mental health, relationship factors and past year ADM. Alcohol misuse was assessed using the 10 item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scale, with scores ≥8 defining misuse, a single item assessed past year illegal drug use. Alcohol and drug misuse were reported by 23.1% and 31.8% of the women respectively. In multivariable regression, alcohol misuse was associated with experiencing past year non-partner sexual violence, transactional sex with a main partner, past year drug use, and past week depressive symptoms, while drug misuse was associated with alcohol misuse, transactional sex with a casual partner, past year experience of physical and/or sexual IPV and having a functional limitation (disability). Results indicate ADM in informal settlements are shaped by violence and poor mental health. Interventions geared towards strengthening women’s economic position and mental healthcare are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol
• drugs
• informal settlements
• urban
• women

Acknowledgements

We thank all the field workers who assisted in data collection for this study. We also wish to thank all the participants for sharing their data with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration

. The study this data was collected for was funded by DFID-UK as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls Programme. Funding was managed by the South African Medical Research Council. SAMRC staff (AG; LR; SW) received funding from the SAMRC for writing of this paper. JN was funded by Nelson Mandela University Post Graduate Research Scholarship and the South African National Research Foundation; Grant UID 113404

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Department for International Development.