Alcohol and tobacco use among male aged 15 year and above in urban area of Ghaziabad city, Uttar Pradesh, India: an epidemiological study

Abstract

Background: Alcohol consumption and problems related to alcohol vary widely around the world, but the burden of disease and death remains significant in most countries. Though there are studies indicating co-occurrence of alcohol use with tobacco, not much work is done on association of alcohol and tobacco use in India.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 324 individuals aged ≥15 years by house to house visit, selected from urban field practice area of the Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India by using simple random sampling between May 2010 to April 2011. Data was collected by home visit using WHO questionnaire (AUDIT: alcohol use disorder identification test) as study tool by interviewing each study subject.   

Results: In the present study among current drinker, 60% Used smoked tobacco and 15.5 of the Teetotalers’ were smoker. Similarly, smokeless tobacco smokeless tobacco used by 25.8 current drinkers and 6.2 of Teetotalers’. A highly significant association was found between tobacco and alcohol use.

Conclusions: The present study highlights the association between concurrent alcohol and tobacco use among Indian population. It can be very well concluded that alcohol users are more indulged into tobacco use as compared to teetotallers. Therefore, high risk screening for tobacco use among the alcoholics can be a vital step in the prevention of addiction, which is emerging as one of the major risk factor for non-communicable diseases.