ALCOHOL USE AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PROFESSIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS IN AGARTALA, INDIA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
Rituparna Das*, Shampa Das, Sankha S. Debnath, Aman Kumar and Arjun saha
ABSTRACT
Background: Alcohol consumption has been identified as a leading pattern of substance abuse during university life and professional college students being more exposed to daily stressors are more vulnerable to alcohol abuse. Objective: 1. To assess the prevalence of alcohol use among professional college students. 2. To study the factors associated with alcohol use among them. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted between September to November, 2015 among students of 5 randomly selected Professional colleges of Agartala. Sample size was calculated and 450 professional college students were included in the study. Results: The study revealed that the prevalence of alcohol use among the professional college students was 25.10%, with 1.30% participants being regular consumers of alcohol. Group habit (48.67%) was the most common reason cited by the students for the initiation and maintenance of the habit. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age and gender of the students were significant predictors of alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Harmful effects of alcohol should be strongly emphasized among college students so as to prevent the younger generation from falling prey to chronic alcoholism.
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