What is it about?
Alcohol marketing is a key risk factor for alcohol use among youth but has rarely been studied in Uganda. In this study, we examine what youth who live in urban slums think about alcohol marketing and how much and where they see such marketing. Then we determine how alcohol marketing influenced their drinking frequency, drinking quantity and if they had alcohol-related problems. Our analyses show that there is a strong relationship between what youth think of alcohol marketing and how much they see and their own drinking patterns.
Featured Image
Photo by Umur Batur Kocak on Unsplash
Why is it important?
In Uganda, a country with limited resources, there is a very high burden of alcohol-related harm. Restricting alcohol marketing is an evidence-based strategy for reducing alcohol-related harm. But, few studies have looked at alcohol marketing and its influence on youth in Uganda. Our study fills this gap by demonstrating the relationship between alcohol marketing and youth drinking in a relatively large epidemiological study. These findings can be used to inform and develop impactful and cost-effective intervention strategies to protect youth, such as reducing alcohol marketing exposure among youth under the legal drinking age.
Perspectives
I hope this research will be used and of benefit to the communities across Uganda and in similar settings that struggle to protect youth from aggressive alcohol marketing and high levels of alcohol-related harm. As always, it takes a committed team to produce this type of work, I'm very grateful to the Uganda Youth Development Link, our study implementing partner and to all the co-authors as well as the broader study team. Finally, this study would not have been possible without the funding from NIH.
Monica Swahn
Kennesaw State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Heavy drinking and problem drinking among youth in Uganda: A structural equation model of alcohol marketing, advertisement perceptions and social norms, Drug and Alcohol Review, June 2022, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/dar.13497.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Research Showcase of Work in Kampala
A short video of my ongoing community work in Uganda to improve the health and well-being among youth in the slums.
KSU Interview as Part of Research with Relevance Series
Interview about my work in Uganda
Assessing Features of Alcohol Marketing in Kampala
An article for how to determine alcohol marketing.
Article on Prevalence and Context of Problem Drinking
Another related project
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
