Prevalence and factors associated with alcohol consumption among adolescents and young adults aged 15–24 years in the Limete and N’sele health zones, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Background Alcohol consumption is a priority public health problem among adolescents and young adults in the world. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with alcohol consumption among adolescents and young adults aged 15-24 years in the health zones (HZ) of Limete and N’sele, in Kinshasa. Several factors would be associated with early alcohol consumption among this population, including age, male gender, level of education, income-generating activity, etc. Methods A cross-sectional analytical study involving 372 adolescents and young adults was conducted. Data was collected using the Kobocollect application and analyzed using SPSS v. 25 software. Quantitative variables were summarized as median and its interquartile range (IQR), and qualitative variables were summarized as frequencies and cross-tabulations. The Chi-Square test was performed to determine the association between alcohol consumption and independent variables. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to establish the relationship between alcohol consumption (dependent variable) and independent variables. The odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval were used to quantify the association. Results The age range was 14-25 years; the prevalence of alcohol consumption was 49.5%. The income-generating activity was associated with alcohol consumption, according to multivariate analysis, adjusted OR =3.26 (95% IC 2.04 to 5.2), p-value <0.001. Conclusions Alcohol consumption remains a real public health problem in Limete and Nsele HZ, in Kinshasa, DRC. Efforts must be made to regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol by adolescents and young adults and to raise their awareness to help reduce this scourge. Registration The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Kinshasa School of Public Health (approval number: ESP/CE/119/2024).