Alcohol consumption among women in a district of eastern Nepal

Abstract

Background: The World Health Assembly has declared alcohol related problems to be a major public health concern all over the world. It has a serious health effect on women.

Objectives: To assess the strength, pattern and associated health problems among the female population in Sunsari district of Nepal.

Methods: A representative sample of 2397 females aged 15 years and above were interviewed in Sunsari district in 2003.

Results: Among the respondents, 16.6% of females were current alcohol users [95%CI=15.11 to 18.09] among which 14.7% in the reproductive age were consuming alcohol. About 23% of daily users, who were taking more than 524 ml of Homemade ‘Raksi’ were at high risk. Alcohol-users were more likely to use tobacco. About 15% of women were found be taking alcohol even during pregnancy. Exactly 42% of users and 27.5% of non-users reported to have health problems (P<0.0001). Self-reported illnesses among alcohol users were gynecological (40.1%), muskulo-skeletal (18.6%), headache (18.6%), cardiovascular (14.4%), and respiratory problem (9.0%).

Conclusions: The prevalence of alcohol use among females was 16.6% in Sunsari district. ‘Local Raksi’ was the most common. Alcohol users were nearly two times to have health problem than the non-users [OR=1.7, 95% CI=1.4 to 2.0, P<0.001]. The adverse effect of alcohol on female is a serious issue for her health and also to her fetus. Health educational campaigns related to alcohol control should be directed at the community and emphasized them to go for the regular health check up.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hren.v11i3.9633

 Health Renaissance 2013;11(3):205-212