Abstract:

Owing to the nature of their career, medical practitioners and staff of hospitals in general have been held in high esteem as life preservers and role-models. Studies have pointed to the prevalence of alcohol use among medical practitioners and doctors in particular, detecting hazardous drinking among junior medical doctors at about 2% rate. The American Nurses Association (ANA) reports that approximately 10% of nurses are dependent on drugs and alcohol, making the incidence of alcohol abuse and addiction among nurses consistent with that of the U.S. population. This study examined the prevalence of alcohol use among medical and non-medical hospital staff of a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. The prevalence of alcohol was estimated for 101 medical and 79 non-medical staff of the teaching hospital. Information was obtained using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and a structured tool to collect socio-demographic information. Descriptive and Inferential statistics were employed in the data analyses. The prevalence of alcohol use among the hospital staff was 58.3% including 36.1% low risk drinkers, 20.5% high risk drinkers and 1.7% were hazardous drinkers. Non-medical staffs reported significantly higher level of alcohol intake than medical staff. Job designation and gender were found to have significant influence on the level of alcohol usage, while age and marital status were found not to significantly influence the level of alcohol usage of the hospital employees. Author concluded that the prevalence of alcohol use among the hospital staff was high. The Findings were discussed in line with the existing literature and the current socio-economic realities of the country. It was recommended, among others, that researchers should work hard to discover the precipitating and maintenance factors of alcohol consumption among hospital employees in Nigeria. Keywords: Alcohol use, Medical and Non-Medical staff, Teaching Hospital.

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