Alcohol use among school-going adolescents in Harare, Zimbabwe: results from the 2003 Global School-Based Health Survey

Data from the Global School-Based Health Survey (2003) were analysed to estimate the proportions of relevant socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics. Of the 1997 students who participated in the survey, 15.6% (17.1% males and 14.0% females) reported alcohol consumption. Factors associated with consumption of alcohol use were being worried, bullied, smoking cigarettes, truant, and lack of parental supervision. Students who were never worried were 49% (AOR=0.51 [95%CI (0.36, 0.72)]) less likely to consume alcohol compared to students who were most of the time or always worried. Similarly, students who were never bullied were 42% (AOR=0.57 [95%CI (0.42, 0.77)]) less likely to take alcohol compared to students who were bullied at least six times in the previous one month to the survey. Compared to students who smoked cigarettes, non-smokers were 71% (AOR=0.29 [95%CI (0.21, 0.41)]) less likely to consume alcohol. Compared to students who always received parental supervision, students who rarely received parental supervision were more likely (AOR=1.85 [95%CI (1.19, 2.90)] to consume alcohol, and those students who sometimes received parental supervision were less likely (AOR=0.70 [95%CI (0.50, 0.98)] to consume alcohol. There is a need to implement public health interventions with special attention to the determinants of alcohol consumption in this age group