Interesting discussion about alcohol disorders. From what I read this is a self-reported diagnosis hence highly subjective, the scale being that from alcohol abuse to alcoholism.
I wanted to share something about use of Alcohol in Malawi. Home brewed beer has a long tradition in African countries. A self respectable traditional chief would be a heavy beer drinker. (As an anecdote: the Senior Staff room at the university has a functioning bar/pub open throughout the day.)
Alcohol is one of the key causes of road accidents and deaths by road accidents (drunk pedestrians and drivers). In Malawi 6.45% of total deaths are due to road traffic accidents.
This is an older study (2008) among the student population in Malawi that found that almost 50% of male students qualified as ’suffering’ from alcohol related disorders defined as such by scoring above the threshold at the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) https://auditscreen.org/~auditscreen/cmsb/uploads/audit-english-version-...
Alcohol drinking among the youth (and female population too) seems to be on the increase (informal sources). Alcohol intake is high among the working age population (men especially). Linking the lack of food and alcohol poisoning (drinking on an empty stomach) is frequently reported in the social media.
HIFA profile: Amelia Taylor is a Lecturer in AI at Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences. Interests: AI, NLP, Health Informatics, Data Visualisation. ataylor AT mubas.ac.mw
