Key result
Nationwide Indian survey reveals ~9% adult alcohol abuse prevalence, peaking in Arunachal Pradesh.
Why the study?
Alcohol and tobacco abuse are major risk factors for non-communicable diseases and COVID-19, necessitating estimation of their prevalence in India and evaluation of cost-effective public health strategies.
Cross-Sectional (n=30,354)
Yes
This nationwide survey highlights a significant prevalence of alcohol (8.7%) and tobacco (7.9%) abuse in India, underscoring the need for public health interventions to mitigate substance abuse and related non-communicable diseases.
Abuse of legal substances in India includes alcohol and tobacco, which are the major risk factors for various non-communicable diseases and deaths. The current pandemic has identified tobacco consumption as a risk factor for COVID-19, highlighting the need to control substance abuse. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of substance abuse in India and discuss the cost-effective public health strategies (such as yoga) to alleviate COVID-related anxiety in order to prevent substance abuse and its associated co-morbidities such as type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study reports the data on tobacco and alcohol abuse from a nationwide randomized two-arm diabetes control trial (Niyantrita Madhumeha Bharata, 2017) conducted by the Indian Yoga Association (IYA) through Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), Bengaluru. Data of 30,354 participants who abuse tobacco and 30,159 participants who abuse alcohol were collected all over India. The prevalence is estimated at around 8.7% for alcohol abuse and 7.9% for tobacco abuse, Arunachal Pradesh state ranking the highest regarding both alcohol and tobacco abuse, while the Tripura state ranked the lowest. School and college-based mandatory yoga programs need to be implemented to prevent the increase of substance abuse in India to alleviate the psychosocial stress of adolescents and college-going students, besides the installation of the mindfulness-based diabetes yoga protocol (DYP) in the wellness centers of Ayushman Bharat.
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Sivapuram et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional in Alcohol and tobacco abuse (n=30,354). Alcohol and tobacco abuse was evaluated on Prevalence of alcohol and tobacco abuse. In a nationwide survey of adults in India, the prevalence of alcohol abuse was estimated at 8.7% and tobacco abuse at 7.9%, with the highest rates observed in Arunachal Pradesh.
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