International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | November 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 11 Page 4874International Journal of Community Medicine and Public HealthKumar R et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Nov;5(11):4874-4881http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040Original Research ArticleAn epidemiological study on alcohol consumption and knowledge of itsharmful effects on human health among rural adult population ofadopted villages covered under field practice area of a privatemedical college in Udaipur, RajasthanRupesh Kumar, Rakhi Luthra*, Maitri R. HathiINTRODUCTIONAlcohol consumption is prevalent all over world sinceages and in many societies it is a normal customary habitwhere as in many it is considered as taboo and prohibited.Consumption of alcohol has increased immensely inrecent decades particularly among young adults.According to a WHO report an estimated about 2 billionpeople worldwide consume alcoholic beverages andabout 2.3 million people die from alcohol related causes.1Over the past 30-40 years, increasing percentages ofyoung people have started to drink alcoholic beverages,their alcohol consumption has increased in quantity andfrequency and the age at which drinking start hasdeclined.2 Alcohol impairs driving ability and increasesrisk of accidents, alcohol is the direct cause of 30- 50% ofABSTRACTBackground: Consumption of alcohol among adults is a serious public health issue worldwide. However theknowledge of adverse effects of alcohol consumption on human health is very negligibly less in small towns andvillages of India. Present study was conducted to determine the extent of alcohol intake and the knowledge of itsadverse 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 ofprivate 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 statisticallysignificant effect for alcohol consumption. Results showed that the knowledge of excessive intake of alcohol cancause harmful effects on human health like Infertility to woman, irregular menstrual cycle, cancer were statisticallysignificant (p0.05).Conclusions: There is a need to enhance awareness on adverse effects of alcohol and at least bring downconsumption level among heavy drinkers through peer group/family/community involvement.Keywords: Alcohol consumption, Inducing factors, Harmful effectsDepartment of Community Medicine, Pacific Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, IndiaReceived: 24 August 2018Accepted: 02 October 2018*Correspondence:Dr. Rakhi Luthra,E-mail: rvsinghudr@gmail.comCopyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed underthe terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercialuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20184588Kumar R et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Nov;5(11):4874-4881International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | November 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 11 Page 4875severe road accidents.2 Alcohol is considered etiologicfactor in suicide, accidents and injuries, and a risk factorin Violence including domestic violence, poverty, andhigh risk sexual behaviour. Alcohol consumption anddevelopment of obesity is positive among men andnegative among women. Alcohol is also considered as acarcinogen resulting in cancer of oesophagus, mouth,pharynx and larynx.3 Harmful use of alcohol was thecause for 5.9% of all deaths and 5.1% of global burden ofdisease and injury.4 Alcohol consumption has increasedmore in rural strata because of rise in un-employment,low economic status, making impression on society ormay be as a reason of some customs, etc. There is adearth of data on the hazardous use of alcohol in ruralIndia.5Excessive consumption of alcohol can negatively affectshuman health throughout the lifespan.A medical graduate ‘be familiar with basic, clinical andtranslational research’.6 Present study has been carriedout from a field practice area of a medical college as partof educational tool and to expose undergraduate medicalstudents in research methodology. Research project wasdesigned and executed through active involvement of agroup of students.Objective To assess the prevalence and consumption pattern ofalcohol among adult rural population of a village. To analyze the awareness of knowledge of harmfuleffects of alcohol consumption among alcoholdrinkers.METHODSStudy design and data collectionThis cross sectional study was conducted during Augustto December 2017 in Villages Bhilo ka Bedla,Pratappura, Manapura, Rabariyo ki Dhani in BadgaonTehsil of Udaipur, Rajasthan; which are rural fieldpractice area of Community Medicine Department ofPacific Medical College and Hospital Udaipur forundergraduate MBBS students teaching. The data wascollected by house to house visit after explaining themthe purpose of study and on obtaining informed consent,using pre-tested interview questionnaire; read/explainedin their language with the help of local medico-socialworker of our department Mr. Ganesh Salvi and Mr.Durga Shanker Dangi.Sample sizeIn aggregate village have a population of 2590 as perbaseline data obtained through village survey. Out oftotal adult population in village 400 adults were selectedrandomly.Inclusion criteriaInclusion criteria were adults of age group >20 years.Exclusion criteriaExclusion criteria were those who were not willing toparticipate and age 0.05); Alcohol abuse can suffer frommalnutrition (t=4.56, p0.05);Heavy alcohol use causes alcoholic hepatitis (p>0.05);heart problems can be caused by heavy alcohol drinkingKumar R et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Nov;5(11):4874-4881International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | November 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 11 Page 4880(t=.00, p>0.05); depression, sleep disturbances, gumdiseases and tooth decay are the most common sideeffects of excessive alcohol drinking (t=0.84,p>0.05).These outcomes supports the study by Eze et al,which shows that excessive alcohol increases high risk ofvarious diseases.17-19According to WHO, world 3rd largest risk factor fordisability and diseases is now become alcoholconsumption, with 4% of all global deaths attributed toalcohol.20CONCLUSIONThe present study was conducted out in Udaipur with theaim to find out prevalence of alcohol consumption amongadults and to analyse the knowledge of drinkers regardingharmful effects of alcohol consumption on human health.In study population (47.25%) of adults consume alcohol.Majority of alcohol drinkers were in younger age groupsof 20-29 and 30-39. In present study, Friends were foundto be the main inducing factor for indulgence intoalcoholic beverages (mainly country liquor called as DesiDaru). Main reason for taking up alcohol consumptionwas to relieve stress apart from social customs and forenjoyment purposes. Although only (13%) consumealcohol regularly/almost daily however over (50%) areheavy drinkers (more than 5-6 pegs at a time which maybe quite harmful. Awareness on harmful effects ofalcohol is low at (42.25%) and worst part is that thosewho despite being aware of harmful effects and eveninvolved in accident/injury directly attributable to alcoholalmost (47%) chose to continue drinking.There is a need to enhance awareness on adverse effectsof alcohol and at least bring down consumption levelamong heavy drinkers through peer group/family/community involvement. Last but not the leastgood recreation avenues to divert/discourage youngstersfrom alcoholism.LimitationsThe study was conducted during the academic timeperiod thus having short time for survey and datacollection, we have taken sample of 400 rural adultpopulations for our study research.RecommendationsThe key argument for restricting the consumption ofalcohol, and even prohibiting it, is the harm it can causefor health. As alcohol consumption causes many healthproblems and have higher mortality and morbidity, thosewho are dependent on alcohol may experience morestress and psychological distress. It also increases the riskfor all type of affective and anxiety disorders which leadsto violence and other economic problems. Therefore it isrecommended that awareness among the people of ruralarea should be enhanced through small group discussionslike secondary school students, formal and non-formalleaders/ elders so that alcohol menace can be minimised.In conclusion, it may be appropriate to stat that totalabstinence or prohibition to the extent which isachievable yet message should be there for each andevery one consume with caution and responsibly and beaware of adverse impact on self/ family.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSFirstly we would like to thank the survey respondentswho took part in this study, giving their time and sharingtheir ‘Alcohol Diaries’. Without them, this study wouldnot be possible.We are very much thankful to our department MSW StaffMr. Ganesh Salvi and Mr. Durga Shanker Dangi for theirgreat cooperation in data collection from our researchfield area, data entry and data compiling work for thisresearch.Funding: No funding sourcesConflict of interest: None declaredEthical approval: The study was approved by theInstitutional Ethics CommitteeREFERENCES1. WHO (2008), Health situation in South East Asiaregion, 2001-2007.2. Park’s Text book of Preventive & Social Medicine.24th edition. 2017.3. Suryakantha AH. Community Medicine with Recentadvances. 4th edition. 2017: 571-790.4. Ramanan VV, Singh SK. A study on alcohol useand its related health and social problems in ruralPuducherry, India. J Family Med Prim Care.2016;5(4):804–8.5. John A, Barman A. Hazardous alcohol use in ruralsouthern India; Nature, Prevalence and Risk factors.National Medical Journal India. 2009;22(3):123-5.6. 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Geneva: WHO Press; 2011.Cite this article as: Kumar R, Luthra R, Hathi MR.An epidemiological study on alcohol consumptionand knowledge of its harmful effects on human healthamong rural adult population of adopted villagescovered under field practice area of a private medicalcollege in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Int J Community MedPublic Health 2018;5:4874-81.
