Hazardous alcohol use in rural southern India: Nature, prevalence and risk factors.

ABSTRACT

Background. There is a dearth of data on the hazardous use of alcohol in rural India. Methods. We examined the nature, prevalence and factors associated with hazardous use of alcohol among men in a rural community in southern India. We used stratified sampling to select subjects from the Kaniyambadi block and employed ‘AUDIT’, a standard instrument, to assess the use of alcohol. Results. The prevalence of life-time use, use in the past year and hazardous use of alcohol was 46.7%, 34.8% and 14.2%, respectively. Using Indian made foreign liquor (OR 20.51; 95% CI 8.81–47.75) and living in a village which brewed illicit alcohol (OR 2.82; 95% CI 1.39–5.72) were risk factors for hazardous use while education (OR 0.39; 95% CI 0.21–0.72) was protective. These factors remained significantly associated with hazardous use after adjusting for age and education using logistic regression. Conclusion. The relationship between the availability of illicit and commercial alcohol and its hazardous use suggests the need for an alcohol policy which takes into account health and economic issues and also implements the law to prevent the negative impact of problem drinking.