Patterns of Alcohol Consumption among Male Adults at a Slum in Kolkata, India.
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Date
2012-03
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Abstract
Globally, alcohol-abuse is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Consumption of alcohol has increased
in India in the recent decades. It is imperative to know the patterns of alcohol consumption among different
types of consumers to launch a well-planned nationwide programme for the prevention and control of
this devastating social pathology. This community-based, cross-sectional study was undertaken to identify
the patterns of alcohol intake among different types of alcohol consumers and to assess the clinical signs
of chronic harmful alcohol-use. A predesigned, pretested, semi-structured alcohol-use disorders identification
test (AUDIT) questionnaire was used for interviewing males, aged >18 years, selected by random
sampling from an updated household list of a randomly-selected sector of the service area of the Urban
Health Centre in Chetla, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Written informed consents were obtained from all
the respondents. Relevant clinical examination for chronic harmful alcohol-use was done according to the
AUDIT clinical screening procedures. The results revealed that 65.8% (150/228) were current consumers
of alcohol; 14% were alcohol-dependents; 8% were hazardous or harmful consumers, and 78% were nonhazardous
non-harmful consumers. The mean age of the respondents at the initiation of drinking alcohol
was 20.8+5.9 years. Eighty-six percent of dependents (n=21) took both Indian-made foreign liquor and
locally-made alcoholic beverages. The proportions of alcohol consumers who drank alone among alcoholdependents,
hazardous or harmful consumers, and non-hazardous non-harmful consumers were 71.4%,
50%, and 7.7% respectively, and the difference was significant (p<0.01). Forty-one percent of the consumers
drank at public places and workplaces, which may be socially harmful. About 38% of the dependents
purchased alcohol from unlicensed liquor shops. Only 16% expressed concerns for their drinking habit
mainly to the past illness. The proportion of the concerned respondents was higher in the hazardous and
harmful drinking patterns than in the non-hazardous non-harmful drinking pattern, and the difference
was significant (p<0.05). About 62% of the dependents had clinical signs of chronic alcohol consumption.
The presence of a considerable proportion of alcohol-dependents, the low mean age at initiation of drinking
alcohol, and the habit of drinking in public places and workplaces are the main areas that need special
emphasis by intervention programmes.
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Keywords
Alcohol, Alcohol consumption, Alcohol dependence, Community-based studies, Crosssectional studies, Harmful drinking, Hazardous drinking, India
Citation
Ghosh Santanu, Samanta Amrita, Mukherjee Shuvankar. Patterns of Alcohol Consumption among Male Adults at a Slum in Kolkata, India. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition. 2012 Mar; 30(1): 73-81.