e525 © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com Laofe, Ogundipe, Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry Alaba Omotola, Senior surgeon Quadri Alabi, Lecturer in Human Physiology Tunrayo, Oluwadare, Lecturer in Public Health Aderemi Obawole, An industrial psychologist Journal of Public Health | Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. e525–e531 | doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdz136 | Advance Access Publication November 28, 2019 Prevalence of early morning alcohol consumption among commercial motorcyclists and its health consequences in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria Laofe Ogundipe 1 , Alaba Omotola 2 , Quadri K. Alabi 3, , Tunrayo Oluwadare 1 , Aderemi Obawole 4 1 Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti PMB 5454, Nigeria 2 Department of Surgery, Afe Babalola University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ado Ekiti PMB 5454, Nigeria 3 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State PMB 250, Nigeria. 4 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State PMB 013, Nigeria. Address correspondence to Quadri K. Alabi, E-mail: alabikunlequadri@gmail.com. ABSTRACT Background Alcohol is classifed among legal substances, but its excess consumption can result in road traffc accidents via impairing psychomotor activity and concentration. This study investigated the prevalence of early morning alcohol consumption and its health consequences among commercial motorcycle (Okada) riders in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Methods Systematic sampling technique was used to recruit subjects for this study. Cutting down alcohol; annoyed by comments on alcohol; guilt of alcohol use; early morning use of alcohol; eye opener (CAGE) questionnaire was used to estimate the prevalence of problematic alcohol use among Okada riders in Ado Ekiti. Results One hundred and seven Okada riders were assessed. Majority of them were young adults. Majority of the riders know another rider who have had a serious road traffc accident riding Okada in the past 12 months and 29% of them know a rider who had died riding Okada in the past 12 months. About 28.6% of them admit early morning alcohol consumption. Suppression of cold (45.5%), keeping awake (19.4%) and peer group effect (14.5%) were the major identifed factors infuencing them to use alcohol. The commonest types of injuries sustained were bruises and lacerations (51.1%) and fractures of upper and lower limbs (18.7%). Conclusion The early morning alcohol consumption among Okada riders contributed to road traffc accidents in Ekiti state, Nigeria. Keywords CAGE, early morning alcohol drinking, Ekiti State-Nigeria, health consequences, Okada riders Introduction Alcohol and drugs use is a global problem causing both social and public health chaos in many countries. The detri- mental efects of alcohol on human physiology have well been documented. 1–3 Alcohol has been shown to cause dose- dependent impairment of balance, reaction time, visuospa- tial skills, recognition and memory, accuracy of fine motor movements, critical thinking and social skills. 4 , 5 The literature suggests that alcohol consumption increases the probability of a serious road trafc accident. 6–8 Alcohol abuse may be related to the high road trafc accidents especially among the commercial motorcyclists (Okada riders) in Nigeria and the victims are mainly young adult with high potential to use alcohol. 9 , 10 Nigeria is a developing country that has not maximally utilized her resources to achieve socioeconomic develop- ment. 11 , 12 One of the consequences is poor infrastruc- ture with extremely poor road network and poor public transportation system in the country. 12 , 13 Generally, it is difcult and unreliable to get to place of work or business Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/42/4/e525/5628288 by guest on 21 November 2022