INTRODUCTION:

Adolescence is derived from Latin word adolescent meaning to grow up. It is the transitional phase of growth and development between childhoods to adolescents. According to World Health Organization adolescent is defined as any person between ages 10 to 19 years. Alcohol has been defined in the Webster’s dictionary as any of a series of volatile hydroxyl compounds that are made from hydrocarbons by distillation. In common usage “alcohol” often refers simply refers to ethanol or “grain alcohol” which may be produced by fermentation of fruits or grains with yeast and is one of the oldest and most common used drug in the word. Alcoholism is the chronic alcohol use of the degree that it interferes with physical or mental health or with normal social or work behaviour. Global alcohol consumption has increased in recent decades, with most or all of this increased occurring in developing countries. Both average volume of alcohol consumption and pattern of drinking vary dramatically between sub-regions. Average volume of drinking is highest in Europe and North America, and lowest in the Eastern Mediterranean and SEAR-D region (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Myanmar and Korea). Worldwide alcohol causes 3.3 million deaths every year, it represents 5.9 causes of all death and 5.1 percent of DALYS (Disability Adjusted Life Years) within sub-regions the proportion of disease burden attributes to alcohol in greatest in the America and Europe. Although India is regarded as a traditional dry country, it is the dominant producer of alcohol in the south East Asia region (65 %) and contributes to about 7 % of the total alcohol beverage imports into the region. The illicit market consumption is far more than legal scales. Country liquor is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from locally available cheap raw material such as sugarcane, rice, palm, coconut and cheap grains with alcohol content between 25%- 45%. Common varieties of country liquor are arrack, desi, sharab and toddy. The prevalence of alcohol use is still low as compared to other countries. In an alarming revelation, the global status report on alcohol and health 2014, released by WHO states that the amount of alcohol consumption has been raised in India between the periods of 2008 – 2012. According to the WHO report, around 30% of total population in India consumed alcohol in the year 2010. 93 % was consumed in form of spirits, followed by beer with 7% and less than of population consume wine. The per capita consumption of alcohol in the country increased from 1.6 liters from the period of 2003- 2005 to 2.2 liters from the period of 2010-2012. Kerala lead the state in terruss of alcohol consumption. An average individual over the area of 15 consumption over 8 liter of alcohol per annum in the south Indian state followed by Maharashtra and Punjab. It was also revealed that over 11% of population in India indulged in heavy and binge drinking. The global figure stood at 16 %. On the “years of life last” scale, which is based on alcohol attributable years of life last, India has been rated 4 on a scale of 1 to 5. This implies that the alcohol consuming population of our country looses most year of their life because of drinking and its consequences.

The age of initiation to alcohol is going down. Different stages have different legal minimum age limits for alcohol consumption the lowest being 18 years in Kerala. The frequency of drinking before 12 years of age was slightly high among boys when compared with girls. At 13 years of age over half of the boys and girls had ever had an alcoholic drink. Appropriately one fifth had ever engaged in binge drinking. ALPAC Cohort 2012 Recent decades has witnessed considerable increase in alcohol consumption and alcohol related problems (including death from alcohol poisoning) in most parts of world. Alcohol abuse by the individual has devastating effects on the family. The harmful use of alcohol in a causal factor is more than 200 disease and injury conditions. Alcohol consumption is the cause death and disability relatively early stage of life. There is a causal relationship between harmful use of alcohol and a range of mental and behavioral disorders, other non communicable conditions as well as injuries. The latest causal relationships have been established between harmful drinking and incidence of infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis as well as the course of HIV/AIDS. Beyond health consequences, the harmful use of alcohol brings significant social and economic losses to individual and society at large. WHO, 2015 though there is much harm caused by consumption of alcoholic beverages, there are some documented positive effect too if taken in less amount. The well known case is that of the protective effect of alcohol on coronary heart disease and cardio vascular diseases. Alcohol reduces the risk of coronary and the cardio vascular diseases by inhibiting formation of bathroom and decreasing the rate of blood coagulation. A study even showed that alcohol has a protective effect on hearing loss.

Alcohol consumption is linked to many harmful consequences for the individual drinker, the drinkers effects the environment and society as a whole. Such social consequences as traffic accidents, work place problems, family and domestic problems and interpersonal violence has been receiving more public and research attention in recent years. Social consequences affect individuals other than the drinkers for examples- passengers involved in traffic casualties, or family members, affected by failure to fulfill social role obligations, or incidences of violence in the family. It is well established fact that the use of alcohol entails a large number of adverse economic consequences. This could be in different areas such as physical and mental health, traffic safety, violence and labour productivity. But these are difficult to measure. Therefore, social costs are considered as a negative economic impact of alcohol consumption. Relatively few countries have attempted to estimate the cost of alcohol use The National Institute Of Mental Health And Neuroscience (Nimhans) Bangalore in year 2014 conducted a study on alcoholics that 70% of HIV patient were alcoholics and they were teenagers. All India Institute of Medical Science in Delhi showed that every 5th teenager between 15-19 years of age group in Delhi takes alcohol regularly. 3 lakhs are addicted and another lakhs need medical attention for alcohol related disorder. Alcohol problems are associated with lifestyle and socio economic conditions of people. These are becoming more prevalent in adolescents – both boys and girls mainly because of their risk taking behavior and moreover the emotional control of the family; the moral control of school and social control of community are declining. Information explosion and communication across cultural boundaries through mass media have lot of influence on behavior pattern of adolescents all over the world. In India, the prevalence of drug abuse, which is generally low in early adolescents, age 12 and 13 rises steeply in the late teenage and is highest during the 20‟s. This study was done by Navpreet Kaur, Pankaj Gupta, R K Chaudhary (Con, Sgrdimsar, Amritsar), India in 2015 to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding alcohol in young adults of Amritsar region who were of age between 15-20 years. The result of the present study was that 59.3% of students were male while 40.7% were female out of total 300 students studied, 31.6% had consumed alcohol while 68.3% had not consumed alcohol. In this study from the total 76.9% of Adolescents had consumed alcohol on occasion such as weddings, birthday party, etc While 23.1% consumed it twice a week regularly. About 53.6% of Adolescents were with the view that alcohol is addictive. 76.6% of students were of opinion that consuming alcohol is not good for health, while other considered it healthy. Also 85% of the adolescents considered it as a wrong practice for the girls to consume alcohol while only 15% of them considered it acceptable.

These all studies show that young adolescents are at the risk of alcohol related problems and are noted as special population in need of services in the report by National Institute of Medicine. Young adolescents as a group are heaviest drinkers in America and other western countries.

In India, the trend is increasing in favor of alcohol use among student population. Campus atmosphere, peer pressure and easily availability of alcohol is forcing and indulging the adolescent students to indulge in alcoholism mainly due to lack of adequate information and knowledge about the consequences of its use or falsely perceived knowledge and attitude towards alcoholism.

As the use of alcohol in student life is on basis of “company, festivity and curiosity”. Therefore the investigators needs to assess the knowledge and attitude of adolescents regarding alcohol abuse, based on this specific content of information the knowledge is to be provided to enhance the knowledge of adolescents.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

A study to assess the level of knowledge regarding alcoholism among adolescents in Banjarwala, Dehradun.

OBJECTIVES:

To assess the level of knowledge regarding alcoholism among adolescents.

To find out the association between knowledge scores with demographic variables such as Age, Gender, Religion, Type of family, Family income and Source of information.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION:

Knowledge:

The fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association. In this study, the knowledge regarding alcoholism is assessed.

Alcoholism:

A term of long standing use and variable meaning, generally taken to refer to chromic continual drinking or periodic consumption of alcohol which is characterised by impaired control over drinking, frequent episodes of intoxication and preoccupation with alcohol and use of alcohol despite adverse consequences.

World Health Organization:

In this study the alcoholism is referred to the adolescents of age between 12 to 19 years who are been indulge in daily use of alcohol.

Assumptions:

· The adolescents will have enough knowledge regarding alcoholism.

· Girls will have more knowledge than boys

· Adolescents belonging to nuclear families will have less knowledge

· Adolescents having internet sources will have more knowledge

A Quantitative Research Approach is used for this studyThe research design selected for this study is descriptive research design. The research variable in this study is the knowledge of adolescents regarding alcoholism.

Types of variables used in the study are

1 Dependent variables

2 Extraneous variables

1. Dependent variables:

In this study knowledge of the alcoholism among adolescents is the dependent variable.

2. Extraneous variables:

Extraneous variables includes Age, Sex, Religion, Fathers occupation, Family income and Source of information.

Setting of the study:

The study was conducted in Banjarwala, Dehradun. The subjects were gathered in Mothorawala, Dehradun. The distance from our college to the study area is 10 km, time taken to reach the study area form our college is 35 minutes. The population of the study area is around 4000, there is 1 primary health center, 5 schools and 1 Anganwadi. This area was selected because of the convenience to assess the population under study and availability of adolescents around the area.

Population:

An adolescent is a person having an age group between 12-19 years who were residential of Banjarwala, Dehradun

Sample:

In this study sample consists of the adolescents among the population selected to participate in a research study.

Sample size:

In this study the sample comprised of 30 adolescents living in Banjarwala, Dehradun

Sampling technique:

In this study, Non Probability Convenient Sampling Technique was used.

Sample Criteria: There are two types-

Inclusion criteria:

1 Individuals belonging to adolescence age group.

2 Who will be available at the time of data collection.

3 Individuals who will be interested in the study.

4 Individuals who will be able to understand Hindi language

Exclusion criteria:

1 Individuals who will not be available at the time of data collection.

2 Individual who are suffering with illness

3 Individuals who are not adolescent age group.

4 Individuals are not able to understand Hindi.

Description of the tools

The research tool consists of two sections.

Section A-Demographic variable:

This section of tool consists of 7 items regarding the demographic variables of adolescents like Age, sex, Religion, Type of family, Family income, Fathers occupation and Source of information.

Section B-Questionnaire:

Questionnaires are developed to assess the level of knowledge regarding alcohol among adolescents. It consists of 30 questions which are related to alcohol, alcoholism, causes of alcoholism, effect of alcohol on body, prevention and rehabilitation.

Level of scores

Inadequate	0-15
Moderate	16-25
Adequate	26-30

Pilot study:

Pilot study was conducted in rural area, Dehradun in order to check the reliability, validity, feasible and practicability. The investigator obtained written permission for, the concerned authority prior to the study. Topic was explained to the adolescents and confidentiality was assured.

Reliability of the tool:

It is the degree of consistency with which measures the attribute it is suppose to measure. It refers to the extent to which the same result is obtained on administration of instrument. Prior to data collection the permission was obtained from the authority of the college and village administrative (gram pradhan).

The data collection period was of 15 days. The subjects were gathered in Banjarwala, Dehradun. The distance from our college to the study area is 10 km, time taken to reach the study area form our college is 35 minutes. The population of the study area is around 4000, there is 1 primary health center, 5 schools and 1 Anganwadi. This area was selected because of the convenience to assess the population under study and availability of adolescents around the area.

The purpose of gathering information was explained to the respondent. The structured interview was conducted among the adolescents. The questionnaires were given to respondent to assess their level of knowledge regarding alcoholism. Each individual was given 30 minutes to answer the questions. It was decided to analyse the data by both descriptive and inferential statistics on the basis of the objective and hypothesis of the study. Master sheet will be prepared by the investigators to analyse data. The data will be analysed in the terms of descriptive as follows.

Description of tool:

Frequency, Frequency, Percentage, Mean were used for the analysis of the structured questionnaires method.

The research tool consists of two sections.

Section A- Demographic variable.

This section of tool consists of 7 items regarding the demographic variables of adolescents like Age, sex, Religion, Type of family, Family income, Father’s occupation and Source of information.

Section B- Questionnaire.

Organization of the findings:

Section A:

Distribution and percentage of demographic variables.

Section B:

Percentage distribution of adolescents according to their level of knowledge.

Section C:

Association of knowledge score and demographic variables .

Section-A: Distribution And Percentage of Demographic Data

Table- 1. Frequency and Percentage distribution of socio-demographic variables.

S.no.

Demographic Variables

Frequency (f) N

Percentage %

AGE

a) 12-13

b) 14-15

c) 16-17

d) 18-19

30%

36.67%

10%

23.33%

Sex

a) Male

b) Female

73.33%

26.67%

Religion

a) Hindu

b) Muslim

c) Sikh

d) Christian

86.67%

3.33%

6.67%

3.33%

Type of Family

a) Nuclear

b) Joint

36.67%

63.33%

Fathers Occupations

a) Business

b) Agriculture

c) Private job

d) Government job

13.33%

23.33%

40%

23.33%-

Family Income

a) 5000-8000

b) 8001-12000

c) 12001-1700

d) >17001

46.66%

16.67%

20%

Source of Information

a) News paper

b) Television

c) Internet

d) Others

36.67%

23.33%

33.33%

6.67

The table (1) shows that the demographic data details according to their age group depict that 30% of adolescents were in the age group of 12-13 years. In the age group of 14- 15 years adolescents were 36.67%, in the age group of 16-17 years adolescents were 10% and in the age group of 18-19 years it was 23.33% Percentage wise distribution of adolescents according to their sex reveals that highest percentage 73.33% which were males and the lowest percentage were of females 26.67%. Percentage wise distribution of adolescents according to their religion reveals that highest percentage 86.67% of adolescents were Hindu, 3.33% were Muslims, 6.67% were Sikhs and 3.33% were Christians.

Percentage wise distribution of adolescents according to their type of family reveals that highest percentage 63.33% of adolescents belongs to joint family and lowest percentage 36.67% of adolescents belong to nuclear family. Percentage wise distribution of adolescents according to their father’s occupation reveals that 13.33% of adolescent fathers were businessman, 23.33% of adolescent father’s occupation was related to agriculture, 40% of the adolescents were in private job and 23.33% of adolescent fathers worked in government job.

Percentage wise distribution of adolescents according to their family income reveals that highest percentage 46.66% parents income was between 5000-8000/- then 16.67 % of parent’s income was between 8001-1200/-, 16.67% of parents income was 12000-17000/- and 0% of them were earning above 17000/-

Percentage wise distribution of adolescents according to their source of information shows that highest percentage 36.67% of adolescents use to get their information from newspaper, 23.33% of them use to their information through television, 33.33% of them use to get information through internet and rest 6.67% of adolescents use to get their information from other sources.

Section-B: Percentage Distribution of Adolescents According To Level Of Knowledge

Table 2 :

level of knowledge	Frequency (f)	Percentage (%)
Inadequate knowledge	19	63.33%
Moderate	11	36.67%
Adequate knowledge	0	0%

Data presented in table (2) shows 63.33% sample score ranging <15 marks inadequate knowledge and 36.67% had scored between 16-25 marks moderate knowledge and 0% of samples scored above 26 marks. Which shows majority of samples are having inadequate level of knowledge.

Section c: Association between the knowledge score and demographic variables.

Table 3

Sino.

Demographic variables

Inadequate knowledge

Moderate knowledge

Chi square (x2 )

Tabular values

Level of association

AGE:

a) 12-13

b) 14-15

c) 16-17

d) 18-19

9.718

7.82

GENDER:

a) Male

b) Female

2.742

3.84

RELIGION:

a) Hindu

b) Muslim

c) Sikh

d)Christian

1.343

7.82

TYPE OF FAMILY

a) Nuclear

b) Joint

2.553

3.84

FATHER’S OCCUPATION:

a) Business

b) Agriculture

c) Private job

d) Government Service

7.611

7.82

FAMILY INCOME:

a) 5000-8000/-

b) 8001-12000/-

c) 12001-17000/-

d) 17001-Above

6.169

7.82

SOURCE OF INFORMATION:

a) Newspaper

b) Television

c) Internet

d) Other

4.841

7.82

*significant at p>0.05

#not significant at p<0.05 level

The table (3) depicts the following-

Age:

Data presented in table displays that the calculated chi-square value for age 9.718 is more than table value at 0.05 of significant level.

Sex:

Data presented in table displays that the calculated chi-square value for sex 2.742 is less than table value at 0.05 of significant level.

Religion:

Data presented in table displays that the calculated chi-square value for religion 1.343 is less than table value at 0.05 of significant level. Type of family: Data presented in table displays that the calculated chi-square value for type of family 2.553 is less than table value at 0.05 of significant level. Source of information: Data presented in table displays that the calculated chi-square value for source of information 4.841 is less than table value at 0.05 of significant level.

CONCLUSION:

The conclusion was derived from the findings from the study. The following conclusion were drawn from the finding of the study. 67.67% of adolescents were having inadequate level of knowledge, 33.33% of adolescents were having moderate level of knowledge and 0% of adolescents were having adequate level of knowledge. There is association between level of knowledge with demographic variable (age) and there is no association between level of knowledge and all other demographic variables (Sex, Religion, Type of family, Father’s occupation, Family income, Source of information) at the 0.05 of significant levels. Research hypothesis was accepted and null hypothesis was rejected. They need awareness and heath programme regarding alcoholism.so that it helps to improve their knowledge .

RECOMMENDATION:

On the basis of the present study following recommendation are found for the future study

A study can be conducted to find out the effectiveness of knowledge about alcoholism among adolescents.

A future study can be conducted on other age groups.

A similar study can be conducted on large scale.

A comparative study can be conducted regarding the knowledge of alcoholism among school children of private and government school.

INTEREST OF CONFLICT:

None

SOURCE OF FUNDING:

The authors did not receive any financial support from any third party related to the submitted work.

REFERENCE:

1. Definition of adolescent. Available from. http://apps.who.int/adolescent/second-decade/section2/page1/recognizing-adolescence.html-2014

2. Definition of alcoholism. available from. https://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/alcoholism/whatisalcoholism-definition-of-alcoholism/ -2017

3. Keller and Mark (1962). The definition of alcoholism and the estimation of its prevalence, In Pittman, D.J. and Snyder, C.R. [Eds.], society culture and drinking patterns, New York, Wiley.

4. Alcoholism volume.38.No.1,pp.000-000,2003doi:10.1093/alcalc/aggo16, available online at www.alcalc.oupjournals.org.

5. Jounral of public health, volume 34,issue Suppl_1,1 March 2012, pages i20-i30, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fds006-1 March 2012

6. Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/historyofalcoholicbeverages//1/2013B6.html-12 Jan 2010

7. Alcoholic anonymous About us: membership.2010.[ may 2011].Available from :http://www.alcoholic-anonymous.org.uk/?pageID=54

8. World health organization, regional office for Europe [1977] smoking, drinking and drug –the European region, world health organization, Geneva.

9. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1994, Alcohol-related Impairment Alcohol Alert, 25:351Park, k., 2002 , Jabalpur, Social Science and Medicine. In: preventive and Social Medicine, k. Park Editor, 17th Edition M/S BanarsidasBhanot Publisher.

10. World Health report: Mental health 2001,New understanding New hope Geneva , the world health organization.

11. Copeland WE, Angold A, Shanahan L, Dreyfuss J, Diamini I, Costello EJ, predicting persistent alcohol problem : a prospective analysis from the great smoking mountain study psychol med 2012:42(9):1925-1935.

12. G Kumar S, P K C, S L, S E. Vinayagamoorthy, Kumar V, et al. Prevalence and pattern of Alcohol Consumption using Alcohol use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in Rural Tamil Nadu, India. J ClinDiagn Res.2013;7(8):1637-9.

13. WHO World Health Report: Management of substance abuse: Alcohol. 2009, Geneva Retrieved April.15,2010 from ,[ http://www.who.org].

14. Effect on Alcohol Consumption : A Literature review. J addict ResTher6:207;doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000207-15- Jan ,2015

15. http6;//bmcpublichealth.boimedcentral.com/article/10.1186/1471-2458-11-118-18 Feb 2011

Received on 07.11.2017 Modified on 15.01.2018

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2018; 6(1): 50-56.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2652.2018.00012.4