Citation

Eashwar VMA, Gopalakrishnan S, Umadevi R, Geetha A. J. Family Med. Prim. Care 2019; 8(6): 2029-2035.

Affiliation

Department of Community Medicine, Karpagam Faculty of Medical Sciences and Research, Othakalmandapam, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_226_19

PMID

31334175

PMCID

PMC6618224

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In India, though the prevalence of alcohol consumption is low, nearly half of the alcoholic consumers fall into the category of hazardous drinking. There have been rapid changes in the trends and pattern of alcohol use in India. AIMS: The study was carried to find out the pattern of alcohol consumption, associated morbidities, and its association with related factors in an urban area of Tamil Nadu.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done among adult males >18 years of age in Kancheepuram district Tamil Nadu. Among the 400 study participants selected by simple random sampling, 156 were found to be alcohol consumers. A pre-tested structured questionnaire and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to identify the pattern of alcohol consumption and the associated health morbidities. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 22.

RESULTS: It was found that 67% of alcohol consumers had a problematic drinking pattern with 52.5% having a hazardous/harmful drinking pattern and 14.7% were found to be dependent alcoholics. The associated factors of problem drinking among the alcohol consumers were illiteracy, having a history of tobacco use, being unmarried/divorced and consuming alcohol in wine shops. The health morbidities that were found to be associated with alcohol consumption were hypertension, gastritis/peptic ulcer disease, and psychiatric illnesses.

CONCLUSION: More than half of the alcohol consumers had a problematic drinking pattern, which is an alarming public health problem. All the current drinkers in a community have to be screened for problematic drinking pattern and it has to be supplemented with referral services, health promotion, behavioral change communication to the alcohol consumer, and his family members.

Language: en

Keywords

Alcohol dependence; alcohol use disorders; depression; hypertension