Tracing Alcoholism Problem at Kampala International University

Students file into their dorms and the liquor stores of university towns begin to bustle as frosh week begins.

The university experience and life has become synonymous with binge as students dive into buckets of liquor.
Most concerning, one fifth of university students meet the diagnostic criteria of an alcohol use disorder.

However, despite these alarming statistics many university students typically do not classify their drinking as problematic.

Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks for males and four or more drinks for females within a two –hour time span. The majority of university students who drink alcohol report that they have engaged in binge drinking at some time in the past month.

Students who engage in heavy drinking define binge drinking as an even greater number of drinks than those who do not drink as heavily.
This indicates a gap in knowledge, which may contribute to the high rates of binge drinking in the university population.

The majority of university students who drink alcohol report that they have engaged in binge drinking at some time in the past month.

LC1 laments on the alcoholism around the Kampala International university

“The most immediate risks of binge drinking include injury, assault, arrest, and even death. These are experienced by many students, and present a growing problem for university. In the past decade, there have been a number of alcohol-related deaths on university within and outside .” said the Lc1.

“There are long-term negative effects, as well. Frequent binge drinking can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and liver disease, Unfortunately, this long-term of alcoholism increases the risks of the health related consequences.” A lab clinical officer explained.

A university lecturer point out the effects of alcoholism abuse within the students.

Mr. Watenyara Richard, lecturer at KIU shared several consequences of alcoholism and how it has impacted on students’ academics.

“Excessive alcohol consumption can take a toll on a student’s academics. Drinking may even become a priority over attending classes, completing homework and studying for exams. An estimated one in every four university students admit to having poor grades or other academic problems because of their drinking behavior.” Watenyara said.

According to the survey, what they can do to people who abuse alcohol are;

Education,
1. Recognizing that, unfortunately, in general it is difficult to show any lasting effects of education in reducing the harm done by alcohol, but that education and information approaches can be effective in mobilizing public support for alcohol policy measures;
2. Effective education, communication, and training programmes should be implemented to raise public awareness;

Awareness
a. Public awareness of alcohol policy issues should be strengthened and promoted using all available communication tools
b. Broad access to effective and comprehensive public awareness programmes on the health risks including the intoxicating and addictive characteristics of alcohol consumption should be provided
c. Public awareness about the benefits of reducing hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption should be increased.
d. Awareness and participation of public and private agencies and nongovernmental organizations not affiliated with the alcohol industry in developing and implementing intersectoral programmes and strategies for alcohol policy should be promoted.

Sensitization
a. Effective and appropriate training or sensitization programmes on alcohol policy to persons such as health workers, community workers, social workers, media professionals, educators, decision makers, administrators and other concerned persons should be addressed.

According to the survey graphs:

According to the survey carried out the university, on the site of Gender was found to have a influence on alcohol abuse among the university students, the nearly 310 respondents were men and women aged 18 years and over ,the total number of responded reported that they drank alcohol with 43.55% of the drinkers being men and 31.29% being women.

The survey carried out that ,the number of alcohol abusers vs. Non_abusers ,the abusers recorded the majority with a percentage of 46.45% while the non_abusers recorded with the percentage of 28.71%.

Tracing alcoholism problem at kampala international university
Infogram

Alcoholism abuse themselves

The same survey reveal students between the age of 18-24 were highly affected with drug abuse with the percentage of 28.39%, age between 25-29 record percentage of 27.74%, age between 30-34 recorded the percentage of 11.94% and finally the age between 35 and above recorded the least percentage of 7.11%.