Background

Alcoholic beverage addiction among adolescents appears to be a global problem. However, its prevalence among secondary school adolescents in south-east Nigeria is poorly documented.

Objectives

To determine the prevalence of alcoholic beverage addiction among secondary school adolescents in a south-eastern Nigerian city.

Materials and methods

500 adolescents aged 12–19 years were recruited from 5 out of 9 secondary schools in a south-eastern Nigerian city by random sampling. The validated World Health Organization (WHO) drug-use questionnaire was adapted for the study and administered to these students. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics on SPSS Version 16.0. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Results

The prevalence of alcoholic beverage addiction was 48.2% (236/490) with a male: female ratio of 2.4:1. The addiction rate was highest amongst students aged 18–19 years (55.4%, 93/168, p = 0.001) and students from the middle socio-economic class (28/45, 62.2%, p = 0.001). Approximately 49% of the addicted students were initiated into consumption of alcoholic beverages by their peers, while 56.8% used it in order to achieve euphoria.

Conclusions

The prevalence of alcoholic beverage addiction among secondary school adolescents in this study is seen as high. Factors such as male gender, peer-group pressures, middle socio-economic class and being older were significant contributors to this high rate of alcohol addiction. Parental divorce and parental deaths were equally contributory to this high rate.