An epidemiological study on alcohol consumption and knowledge of its harmful effects on human health among rural adult population of adopted villages covered under field practice area of a private medical college in Udaipur, Rajasthan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20184588Keywords:
Alcohol consumption, Inducing factors, Harmful effectsAbstract
Background: Consumption of alcohol among adults is a serious public health issue worldwide. However the knowledge of adverse effects of alcohol consumption on human health is very negligibly less in small towns and villages of India. Present study was conducted to determine the extent of alcohol intake and the knowledge of its adverse effects on human health among adult population.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on randomly selected 400 rural adults from a field practice area of private medical college, Udaipur.
Results: Prevalence of alcohol consumption was found to be (47.25%) with (49.36%) males and (39%) females. More than half of drinkers (55.9%) were belonging to 30-39 age group. Country liquor was preferred by (68.88%) and only (17.77%) consume English (IMFL). (56%) of alcohol consumers were drinking alcohol for more than a year. Most of the drinkers (49%) were induced by their friends, (24%) were induced/influenced by their parents. (42.25%) drinkers had knowledge of harmfulness of alcohol drinking; however the awareness per se did not have statistically significant effect for alcohol consumption. Results showed that the knowledge of excessive intake of alcohol can cause harmful effects on human health like Infertility to woman, irregular menstrual cycle, cancer were statistically significant (p<0.05) gender wise, while effects like depression, sleep disturbances, alcoholic hepatises, liver disease, malnutrition were statistically not significant (p>0.05).
Conclusions: There is a need to enhance awareness on adverse effects of alcohol and at least bring down consumption level among heavy drinkers through peer group/family/community involvement.
References
WHO (2008), Health situation in South East Asia region, 2001-2007.
Park’s Text book of Preventive & Social Medicine. 24th edition. 2017.
Suryakantha AH. Community Medicine with Recent advances. 4th edition. 2017: 571-790.
Ramanan VV, Singh SK. A study on alcohol use and its related health and social problems in rural Puducherry, India. J Family Med Prim Care. 2016;5(4):804–8.
John A, Barman A. Hazardous alcohol use in rural southern India; Nature, Prevalence and Risk factors. National Medical Journal India. 2009;22(3):123-5.
Vision 2015: Medical Council of India Publication. 2011: 18.
Singh J, Singh G, Mohan V, Padda AS. A comparative study of Prevalence of Regular alcohol users among male individuals in an Urban and Rural area of Distt. Amritsar, Punjab. Indian J Community Med. 2000;25(2):73-8.
Dutta R, Gnanasekaran S, Suchithra S, Srilalitha V, Sujitha R, Sivaranjani SS, et al. A population based study on Alcoholism among Adult Males in a rural area, Tamil Nadu. J Clin Diagnos Res. 2014;8(6):1-3.
Varma VK, Singh A, Singh S, Malhotra AK. Extent and pattern of alcohol use in North India. Indian J Psychiatry. 1980;22:331–7.
Ray R, Mondal AB, Gupta K, Chatterjee A, Bajaj P. The extent, pattern and trends of drug abuse in India: National Survey. New Delhi: United Nations Office on Drugs and crimes and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India; Available at: www.unodc.org/India/Indiannational survey2004.html. Accessed on 3 June 2018.
Meena, Khanna P, Vohra AK, Rajput R. Prevalence and pattern of alcohol and substance abuse in urban areas of Rohtak city. Indian J Psychiatry. 2002;44:348–52.
Parera B, Torabi MR. Psychological Reports 2004- Journal Sagepub.com. 2004.
Gupta PC, Saxena S, Pednekar MS, Maulik PK. Alcohol consumption among Middle aged and elderly men: A Community study from western India. Alcohol Alcohol. 2003;38(4):327-31.
Girish N, Kavita R, Gururaj G, Benegal V. Alcohol use and implications for public health:patterns of use in four communities. Indian J Community Med. 2010;35(2):238–44.
Chavan BS, Arun P, Singh GP. Prevalence of Alcohol and Drug dependence in Rural and Slum population of Chandigarh. Indian J Psychiatr. 2007;49(1):44-8.
Sachdev S, Nagar M, Tyagi A, Sachdeva R. Alcohol consumption practices amongst adult males in a rural Haryana. Med J D Y Patil Univ. 2014;7:2.
Eze NM, Njoku HA, Eseadi C, Akubue BN, Ezeanwu AB, Ugwu UC, et al. Alcohol consumption and awareness of its effects on health among secondary schhol students in Nigeria, Medicine (Baltimore). 2017;96(48):e8960.
Rehm J, Baliunas D. Borges GLG, Graham K, Irving H, Kehoe T, et al. The relation between different dimensions of alcohol consumption and burden of disease: An overview. Addiction. 2010;105:817–43.
Alex-Hart BA, Opara PI, Okagua J. Prevalence of alcohol consumption among high school students in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. Niger J Paediatric. 2015;42:39-45.
World Health Organization. Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health. Geneva: WHO Press; 2011.
