Determinants of alcohol use before casual sex in Ghana

This paper attempts to understand the socio-demographic, economic and spatial factors associated with alcohol use before casual sex in Ghana. It draws on data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS-08). The analysis in this paper is based 993 men who reported alcohol use before their last casual sexual intercourse prior to the survey. The initial analysis involved using proportions to describe the sample and background characteristics associated with alcohol use before casual sex. In order to examine the nature and strength of association between the explanatory variables and the outcome variable, it was necessary to control for the confounding effects of other correlates using multivariate analyses. Three Binary logistic regression models were used, since the dependent variable (alcohol use before casual sex) was constructed to be a binary outcome. These were run separately and the odds of alcohol use before casual sex are indicated in the form of percentages. Alcohol use before casual sex appeared to increase with age and at the same time occurred more among respondents older than 34 years. Alcohol use before casual sex was more common among participants who were employed (15%), as well as those in the poorest