Prevalence of Alcohol Consumption and Factors Influencing Alcohol Use Among the Youth in Tokorni-Hohoe, Volta Region of Ghana

Background: Alcohol use still remains a great public health concern. However, the youth are the higher risk group in terms of alcohol consumption and its associate complications. Alcohol consumption among the youth is on the rise and Ghana cannot be exempted due to easy accessibility and availability of alcoholic beverages to the youth. According to Ghana Demographic and Health survey, alcohol consumption is highest among young people between the ages of 15-39 years than other age group; however, little information on alcohol consumption has made the problem unknown, limiting appropriate measures to control its use. This study measured the prevalence of alcohol consumption and associated factors among the youth in Tokorni-Hohoe. Methods: The study employed cross sectional study using quantitative method to sample 316 respondents. Random and systematic sampling techniques were used to sample respondents. Structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information from respondents. The analysis was performed using StataSE 12. Results: The prevalence of alcohol consumption among the youth is 43%. Both males and females engage in alcohol use but more males were found to use alcohol than females. Alcohol consumption was highest among the age group of 20-25 years. The major factors influencing the use are peer influence (30.8%) and advertisement (20.3%). All the socio-demographic characteristics except religion ( p=0.011) and occupation ( p=0.001) were found not to be strongly associated with alcohol consumption. Reasons given by the youth for consuming alcohol are to have fun and to stimulate their appetite for food. Conclusions: Alcohol use is highly prevalent among the youth in Tokorni-Hohoe and therefore interventions to prevent its use should be more focus on the youth because of their vulnerability. Advertisement on alcohol use must be control by the appropriate institutions.