Abstract

Background: Alcohol consumption is the world’s third largest risk factor for disease and disability; in middle-income countries, it is the greatest risk. Approximately 4.5% of the global burden of disease and injury is attributable to alcohol. Alcohol is a causal factor in 60 types of diseases and injuries and a component cause in 200 others. Alcohol is attributed to nearly 3.2% of all deaths and results in a loss of 4% of total DALYs (58 million).

Objective: To assess the pattern of alcohol use among the males aged >15 years in the urban slum, Multan Nagar in Meerut.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the catchment area of UHTC (Urban Health and training Centre) among 324 males aged > 15 years. Data was collected by home visit using WHO questionnaire (AUDIT: Alcohol use disorder identification test) along with other questions related to the type, initiation and reason behind alcohol use . Chi square test followed by logistic regression was applied to know the association of alcohol use with the socio-demographic determinants.

Results: According to the AUDIT score, Hazardous, Dependent and harmful drinkers were 7.7%, 9.2% and 2.4% respectively. Most common age of onset was 20-30 years (46.9%) among the drinkers with most common reason being peer pressure (13.6%). Logistic regression was applied and marital status, family history of alcohol use and caste retained their statistical significance (p-value< 0.05, 95% confidence interval).

Conclusions: It can be concluded that early age of onset and peer pressure are the alarming challenges for the eradication of this social evil.

Key words: Alcohol Use; Hazardous; Harmful; Dependent Users; WHO; Audit