“Rethink Your Third Drink”: a Longitudinal Analysis of the Relationship between Depression and Binge Drinking among Young Males in South Africa

Nicole De Wet- Billings, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Mental health issues and alcoholism both compromise the development of youth. The objective of this study is to examine the association between depression and binge drinking among young males in South Africa. This is a longitudinal study of young males (15- 24 years old) who responded to consuming alcohol in the SA NIDS. A total of 596,251 participants with complete data for alcohol consumption and recent experiences of psychological distress were identified at Wave 1 (2008) and followed-up to Wave 3 (2012). Results show that binge drinking increased, with a prevalence of 34% among younger youth in 2008 to almost 50% in 2012. For older youth, binge drinkers increased from 27% in 2008 to 47% in 2012. Reported depression declined from 26.52% in 2008 to 15.07% in 2012. Depression in Wave 1 was found to increase binge drinking among males in Wave 3 (coefficient of 0.1102, p-value=0.045).