African young women and alcohol and substance abuse

Abstract

Alcohol disorder, substance, and drug abuse constitute a big public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. The high levels of episodic alcohol consumption by young female drinkers and the increasing substance and drug abuse in that African subregion are troubling because of the association between harmful consumption of alcohol and drugs, and health and social consequences like domestic violence, HIV infection, and other disorders associated with stress and pregnancy. This chapter sought to examine the nature of, extent of, and health impact of alcohol and substance abuse on African young women. In pursuing this objective, we selected seven African countries from three subregions: Southern Africa (South Africa and Botswana), East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda), and West Africa (Nigeria and Ghana). Results from analysis of available literature about the selected countries showed a common trend of prevalence of heavy episodic drinking in all the countries but more especially in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Botswana. The types of alcohol used included fortified wines, rice wine, palm wine, or other fermented beverages made of banana, sorghum, millet, or maize, as well as beer and imported spirits/liquor. Other drugs/substances abused are tramadol, cigarette, and marijuana. The average age of onset of drug and alcohol use is 10 (but usually between 10 and 19). High levels of alcohol consumption and lifetime drinking were associated with out-of-school young women. For female students, alcohol and drug use were seen as constituting a social capital used to prove that they are equal to their male counterparts in their capability to drink heavily. Parental drug use, relegation to the margins of society, deprivation, poverty, financial gain from older male clients, sociocultural isolation, and environmental stressors contributed to the explained variance in adolescent alcohol and drug use. There was also a strong association between alcohol and drug use and sexual risk behaviors like victimhood, sexual violence, and STIs infection. The canker of drug and alcohol abuse among young sub-Saharan women can be mitigated by programs targeting women to educate them on the negative consequences of alcohol and drug use on their various dimensions of health -physical, social, spiritual, emotional, financial, environmental, psychological, etc. Cessation therapy is highly recommended for those with addiction problems. Future research should target the impact of alcohol and drug use on African women's reproductive health and infant health as well as on alcohol and drug abuse in North and Central Africa given the relative dearth of literature on those two subregions.