Addressing adolescent’s binge drinking in Cameroon using the five key areas of the Ottawa charter for health promotion: implication for the spread of HIV - a commentary

Alcohol consumption in Cameroon is a common practice especially among adolescents. Though the Cameroon law prohibits the advertisement and sale of alcohol to adolescents in and out of school, adolescents and young adults have been identified among the highest consumers of alcohol. This paper comments on how the five key areas of the Ottawa Charter for health promotion can be used in tackling binge drinking among adolescents in Cameroon. In the area of healthy public policies, there should be a tremendous hike in the taxes of alcoholic beverages and promulgation of laws criminalizing binge drinking among adolescents. In creating an enabling environment, the government should put in place a task force to investigate options in relation to closing hours, responsible service of alcohol, reckless secondary supply of alcohol and the alcohol content in ready-to-drink beverages, especially the locally made ones. At the level of the communities, the police should work with community organizations to enforce laws against underage drinking; strategies should also be implemented to tackle the culture of binge drinking among youth social and sports groups. In the area of developing personal skills, the government should include in the curriculum of schools a course on the consequences of adolescent binge drinking, and there should be strategies to increase adolescents’ self-efficacy for alcohol refusal; in reorienting the health services, a task force should be established to develop a national preventative strategy, which will focus on excessive alcohol consumption alongside other lifestyle risk behaviors among adolescents.