Soumyajit, Bose (2015) Prevalence and Correlates of Alcohol use among Men in Rural Tamil Nadu. Masters thesis, Christian Medical College, Vellore.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The production and consumption of alcohol has been on the rise over the past few decades and India has emerged as one of the largest producers of alcohol in the world. It has been shown that sizeable proportions of hospital admissions in India are due to alcohol related problems. Few studies have shown that there is a moderate to high prevalence of alcohol use in the rural areas of India. In order to plan effective interventions to address alcohol related social and health issues, there is a need to understand the actual prevalence of alcohol use by young people, environment in which they drink and the factors that prevent or worsen the drinking habit. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the prevalence and patterns of alcohol consumption amongst 20–35 year old males in a rural community in South India. 2. To identify the factors associated with problem drinking amongst 20–35 year old males in a rural community in South India. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of 300 randomly selected, 20-35 year individuals from the rural developmental block of K.V. Kuppam, Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, to assess the prevalence of alcohol use and the proportion of problem drinkers. A case-control analysis approach was used to assess factors related to problem drinking. A cluster random sampling technique was used to select the participants. A structured questionnaire including socio-demographic characteristics, alcohol related information, AUDIT questionnaire, correlates of alcohol use and Regan Attitude towards Non-drinkers Scale (RANDS) was administered in a door to door survey. The AUDIT score was use to classify individuals as non-drinkers, non-problem drinkers and problem drinkers. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses was done to describe the prevalence and patterns of alcohol use and to identify the independent risk or protective factors for problem drinking. RESULTS: From the study population 89 participants were categorized as problem drinkers as they had an AUDIT score >= 8 and the rest 211 participants (non-drinkers and non-problem drinkers) formed the control group. The prevalence of ever users of alcohol was 54.3% and the prevalence of current users was 49.7% with 59.7% of them being problem drinkers. The most common age of initiation of alcohol use was 20years and the reported minimum age of first drink was 12 years. Most of the problem drinkers were in the age bracket of 25-29 years. Beer followed by IMFL was reported to be the commonly used drinks. The most common reasons quoted for alcohol use were for entertainment, means to socialize and for relaxation and time pass. Among all the risk factors, peer influence as measured by friends consuming alcohol, emerged as the strongest risk factor for becoming a problem drinker and the other independent significant risk factor for problem drinking was poor socio-economic status. A positive attitude towards non-drinkers, as assessed by the RANDS score, was found to significantly prevent individuals from becoming problem drinkers. CONCLUSION: About 50% of young people consume alcohol in the rural areas and 30% of the young men are problem drinkers. If a positive attitude towards non-drinkers can be engendered with communication for behavioural modifications and in addition implementation of poverty alleviation projects, recreational activities for rural youth etc. will bring about a substantial reduction in alcoholism in the future.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | alcohol ; prevalence ; problem drinking ; non-problem drinking ; non-drinkers ; ever users of alcohol ; age of initiation ; ICMR socio-economic status ; K.V. Kuppam block ; south India ; AUDIT questionnaire ; RANDS score ; attitude peer pressure ; consumption by friends. |
| Subjects: | MEDICAL > Community Medicine |
| Depositing User: | Punitha K |
| Date Deposited: | 06 May 2018 12:13 |
| Last Modified: | 06 May 2018 12:13 |
| URI: | http://repository-tnmgrmu.ac.in/id/eprint/7540 |
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