Abstract

Background: Around two billion people consume alcoholic beverages regularly and over 76 million people suffer from Alcohol use disorders globally. Worldwide, alcohol caused 3.8 percent of all deaths (2.5 million) and 4.5 percent of the total burden of disease in 2004.
Methodology: A community based cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted among people living in Ambo town using a pretested standardized tool. A representative sample of 422 people aged 18 and above were involved into the study. Simple random sampling technique was applied to select  the study participants. Result: Twenty seven per cent of the study participants had developed alcohol use disorder (13.1% were categorized as hazardous drinkers, 6.5% were harmful drinker and 7.4% were alcohol dependent). The study revealed that the prevalence of alcohol use disorder among study participants were high when compared to previous study. Religion, education status and age of the study participants were the  sociodemographic characteristics that found to show significant association with AUDs.
Conclusion: This study revealed that the prevalence of alcohol use disorder were high when compared to  previous study. Religion, education status and age of the study participants were the socio-demographic characteristics that found to show significant association with AUDs. Unlike the finding of the other studies done in different part of the world; in this study sex and marital status did not show association with alcohol used disorder.

Keywords: Alcohol use disorders; Ethiopia; Drinkers