Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption among Commercial Drivers in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

This cross-sectional survey research provided a quantitative description of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption among commercial drivers in Lagos, Nigeria. A multi-stage purposive sampling of two hundred (200) commercial drivers from Mile 2 to Badagry was used for this study. Three hypotheses were formulated for this study. Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire (CSACOQ) adopted from Genacis lite- H2O Questionnaire was used to gather information from the respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression were used to analyse the data gathered for this study. The result showed that 63.7% were heavy users, 15.6% were moderate users, and 17.7% were occasional or mild users. The researchers discovered that 60% to 70% of the commercial drivers engaged in drinking and driving. In comparison, about 40% of the commercial drivers used other psychoactive drugs such as tobacco (30.4%), cannabis (4.3%), caffeine (31.9%), sedatives (10.1%), and solvents (8.7%). The researchers believe that there is an urgent need to formulate policies in line with the ten proposed targets of WHO, (2008) resolution on strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and cigarette smoking in Nigeria.This cross-sectional survey research provided a quantitative description of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption among commercial drivers in Lagos, Nigeria. A multi-stage purposive sampling of two hundred (200) commercial drivers from Mile 2 to Badagry was used for this study. Three hypotheses were formulated for this study. Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Questionnaire (CSACOQ) adopted from Genacis lite- H₂O Questionnaire was used to gather information from the respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression were used to analyse the data gathered for this study. The result showed that 63.7% were heavy users, 15.6% were moderate users, and 17.7% were occasional or mild users. The researchers discovered that 60% to 70% of the commercial drivers engaged in drinking and driving. In comparison, about 40% of the commercial drivers used other psychoactive drugs such as tobacco (30.4%), cannabis (4.3%), caffeine (31.9%), sedatives (10.1%), and solvents (8.7%). The researchers believe that there is an urgent need to formulate policies in line with the ten proposed targets of WHO, (2008) resolution on strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and cigarette smoking in Nigeria.