Summary: Background: Alcohol use disorder including alcoholism or alcohol dependency among 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 related household, community, school, health system and clinical factors associated with the problem and suggest scalable changes in the health system for screening, diagnostic and treatment procedures in Uganda. Methods: It will adapt culturally appropriate and operational screening and diagnostic criteria for C-AUD; Investigate the prevalence of C-AUD in the community and health system in addition to risk- and protective factors for alcohol use in children. Further, it will identify the gap in the health system's handling of the issue and suggest changes to the practises. In order to achieve a holistic understanding of the problem we will investigate C-AUD from the children- and schools' point of view. As the field of alcohol use among children is under-researched, our research is explorative in nature aiming for getting a comprehensive understanding of the problems, including what makes alcohol use end up as alcohol use disorder. We will work in close collaboration with ministries, the communities, the school- and health system. We have capacities in child and adolescent psychiatry and substance use, child health and nutrition, public health and implementation research. We will use quantitative and qualitative methods of which the largest component is a community survey involving adapted screening tools and biomarkers in blood and urine. Conclusion: These research findings have the potential to contribute to SDG 3.4 and 3.5 on non-communicable diseases and substance use with relevance for children and respective implementation strategies in sub-Saharan Africa.
