What Persuades College Students to Take That First Sip? - A Study on The Influence of Society and Media on  Attitude Towards Alcohol Consumption

Venmathi  Elangovan; AY Nirupama; Ravivarman G

doi:10.55489/njcm.130520221614

Authors

Venmathi Elangovan ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, Chennai
AY Nirupama Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad
Ravivarman G Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam, Tamil Nadu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55489/njcm.130520221614

Keywords:

Alcoholism, Alcohol use in college students, Alcohol, media influence

Abstract

Background: According to WHO statistics, close to 3 million deaths occur every year due to harmful use of alcohol of which 3.2 lakh people are aged between 15-29 years. College students are more prone to experimenting and risk taking behavior. Keeping this in mind, our study was aimed to assess the alcohol use patterns and factors associated with alcohol consumption among college students.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted including college students from various streams in the South Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Data was collected from 1129 participants using a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 4 sections including socio-demographic details, alcohol use patterns, attitude towards alcohol consumption and media exposure.

Results: Prevalence of alcohol consumption in the sample population was found to be 31% (348). Among the 348, 30.2% (105) reported that one of the reasons for the consumption of the first drink of alcohol was peer-pressure. Higher prevalence of alcohol consumption seen among the groups with higher media exposure and higher tolerance to alcohol advertising was found to be statistically significant. The study statistics show that 600(53.14%) participants were exposed to actors consuming alcohol in media more than 10 times in the past 30 days while only 320(28.34%) reported seeing warnings or health education material in the same duration.

Conclusion: Considering the above findings, it is high time policy makers focused on using media for health promotion and health education, since it is proving to have the potential to influence the decisions and lifestyles of the future generations.

References

Alcohol [Internet]. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/alcohol

Monteiro MG. The Road to a World Health Organization Global Strategy for Reducing the Harmful Use of Alcohol. Alcohol Res Health. 2011;34(2):257–60.

Iranpour A, Nakhaee N. A Review of Alcohol-Related Harms: A Recent Update. Addict Health. 2019 Apr;11(2):129–37.

Report Details Alcohol’s Global Cancer Burden - National Cancer Institute [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2021/cancer-alcohol-global-burden

Global Information System on Alcohol and Health [Internet]. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/global-information-system-on-alcohol-and-health

WHO. Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 [Internet]. Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2018. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565639

SDG Indicators — SDG Indicators [Internet]. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/

Alcohol Consumption Among Adolescents — Implications for Public Health | IntechOpen [Internet]. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/47515

College Drug Abuse [Internet]. Addiction Center. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.addictioncenter.com/college/

Abdi F, Simbar M. The Peer Education Approach in Adolescents- Narrative Review Article. Iran J Public Health. 2013 Nov;42(11):1200–6.

Institute of Medicine (US) and National Research Council (US) Committee on the Science of Adolescence. The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking: Workshop Report [Internet]. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011 [cited 2022 Feb 23]. (The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health). Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53418/

Moreno MA, Furtner F, Rivara FP. Media influence on adolescent alcohol use. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2011 Jul;165(7):680. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.121 PMid:21727285

Olson S, Gerstein DR. Alcohol in America: Taking Action to Prevent Abuse [Internet]. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1985 [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK217459/

National Research Council (US) and Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility [Internet]. Bonnie RJ, O’Connell ME, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2004 [cited 2022 Feb 23]. (The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health). Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK37589/

Literacy Rate of India - Population Census 2011 [Internet]. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.census2011.co.in/literacy.php

OpenEpi - Confidence intervals for a proportion [Internet]. [cited 2022 Feb 23]. Available from: https://www.openepi.com/Proportion/Proportion.htm

Brandão YST, Correia DS, de Farias MSJA, Antunes TMT, da Silva LA. The prevalence of alcohol consumption among the students newly enrolled at a public university. J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2011 Jul;3(3):345–9. https://doi.org/10.4103/0975-7406.84434 PMid:21966154 PMCid:PMC3178940

Mekonen T, Fekadu W, Chane T, Bitew S. Problematic Alcohol Use among University Students. Front Psychiatry [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2022 Feb 24];8. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00086 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00086 PMid:28579966 PMCid:PMC5437113

S MS, U A, S SK, K SK. Prevalence of alcohol use among high school students, the pattern of consumption and the physical circumstances associated with alcoholism in an urban area of Kerala, India. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2017 Feb 22;4(3):738–42. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20170750