TREAT C-AUD

Background

Alcohol and substance use disorders among pre-adolescent children is a neglected and under-researched area.

The TREAT child alcohol use disorder (C-AUD) consortium have been present in the research area for years and observed and identified alcohol use including alcohol dependency among children.

Objectives

This project will investigate the magnitude of C-AUD and substance use in children, and related household, community, school, health system and clinical factors associated with the disorder, and suggest scalable changes in the health system for screening, diagnostic and treatment procedures in Uganda.

Methods

This research project will:

• adapt culturally appropriate and operational screening and diagnostic criteria for C-AUD;
• investigate the proportion of C-AUD among children age 6-13 years in the community and health system;
• investigate risk- and protective factors for alcohol and substance use in children;
• identify the gap in the health system's handling of the issue and suggest changes to the practises; and
• investigate C-AUD from the children and schools' point of view.
• Our research is explorative in nature aiming at getting a comprehensive understanding of the magnitude and related factors of alcohol and substance use in children.

We collaborate through the project with ministries, the communities, and the school and health system

Work packages

WP1 is Project Management

WP4 is the implementation issues comprising integration of results, dissemination and policy and implementation advice.

WP2 and WP3 comprise four larger quantitative and qualitative data collection areas

• WP 3.1: Community survey
• WP 3.2 Health system survey
• WP 3.3 School studies
• WP 3.4 Qualitative studies with children

People

Juliet Ndimwibo Babirye
School of Public Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Ingunn Marie S. Engebretsen 
Centre for International Health, University of Bergen

Marjorie Mukisa, PhD
School of Public Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Neda Valeckaite (Medical Student Research Programme)
Centre for International Health, University of Bergen

Jutta Dierkes
Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen

Norbert Skokauskas
Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Child Protection, Institute of Psychiatry, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar
Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) and Centre for International Health, University of Bergen

Joyce Sserunjogi Nalugya
Mulago National Referral and Teaching Hospital and Department of Psychiatry Makerere, College of Health Sciences

Harriet Aber
School of Public Health, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Victoria Bakken
Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Child Protection, Institute of Psychiatry, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

Vilde Skylstad
Centre for International Health, University of Bergen

Melf-Jakob Kühl
Centre for International Health, University of Bergen

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the leadership and research administration at MakSPH, CIH, UiB and NTNU and our funder: The Research Council of Norway
Project number: 285489

Photo:

UiB

Picture: Meeting in Kampala December 2023 From the left behind: Ane-Marthe Solheim Skar, Melf-Jacob Kühl, Ingunn Marie S. Engebretsen, Neda Valeckaite, Juliet Babirye, Marjorie Mukisa and Harriet Aber-Odonga
Vilde Skylstad, Joyce Nalugya and Norbert Skokauskas not present.