A Study of Socio Demographic Profile of Alcohol Dependents Attending De-Addiction Centre in Ahmedabad

Abstract

Background: In Indian population prevalence of alcohol depend- ence is 5%. The productivity, availability and consumption pattern of alcohol has undergone phenomenal changes in recent time. So this study was aimed to fill up the lacunae in the existing knowl- edge about various determinants of alcohol dependence. Methods: The Cross-sectional observational study was carried out among alcohol dependent patients attending Kanoriya de- addiction centre, Ahmedabad from 1st June 2014 to 31st May 2015. 480 out of total 600 patients could be studied as per the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was obtained after taking consent and entered in Microsoft excel and analysed using Epi info software (7.1). Results: Mean age of initiation of alcohol use was 22.59 ± 4.04 years. Around 70% of the participants had positive family history regarding alcohol consumption and this association was found sta- tistically significant. The most common reason responsible for the initiation of alcohol use was peer pressure (35.20%) followed by curiosity (23.95%). Conclusion: In the present study, all the patients were males and it may be due to poor health seeking behavior of female patients ow- ing to the embarrassment and shame. Young age group must be taught how to handle peer pressure.

Keywords

• Alcohol dependence
• sociodemographic profile
• family history
• deaddiction centre