Awareness Programme On Hazards Of Alcoholism

Problem Solving for Better Health

Project done by K.J.Jeevitha G.Divya J.Arun Kumar R.M.Sri Ramamoorthy

RESEARCH QUESTION WILL A HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME ON HAZARDS OF ALCOHOLISM FOR 100 PEOPLE IN SOWRIPALAYAM INCREASE THEIR AWARENESS AT LEAST BY 50%

OBJECTIVE 1.To assess the knowledge on alcoholic hazards among 100 people in sowripalayam 2.To give a health education on hazards of alcoholism. 3.To reassess the increase in knowledge by a post test.

The term alcoholism can be applied to habitual alcohol consumption that is deemed excessive in amount according to some arbitrary criteum. It may also refer to damage whether mental, physical, or social resulting from such excessive consumption. In more specialized sense alcoholism may imply a specific disease entity that is supposed to require medical treatment.

PROBLEM DRINKER

The term problem drinker has been proposed to refer to people whose repeated heavy drinking causes alcohol related disability. A problem drinker may or may not be dependent in alcohol.

CONT……………

• Alcohol related disabilities are 1. Physical damage - brain & liver - Vitamin B-complex deficiency

2. Alimentary disorders - peptic ulcer - Esophageal varices - Carcinoma - Acute & chronic pancreatitis - Cirrhosis & hepatoma 3. Nervous system - peripheral neuropathy - Epilepsy . - Cerebellar degeneration 4. The mortality rate has increased due to accidents (drunken driving) when compared to non drinkers. Cause of damage to the fetus - fetal alcohol syndrome. 5. Psychiatric disorder - alcoholic idiosynsyncratic intoxication - Memory blackouts 6. Withdrawal syndrome - delirium tremors 7. Suicidal behaviour 8. Impaired psychosocial function 9. Social damage. Alcoholism is a cause of many road accidents . It has a large economic impact on lower socio economic class

JUSTIFICATION Alcoholism is more or less a universal problem. It is a sound and medical problem. Alcohol consumption has increased in quantity and frequency over the past 40 years. It is an associated with serious illness like liver damage, cardiomyopathy, toxic psychosis and cancer of mouth, esophagus, Larynx, in addition to various social problem accompany it. It has many toxic effects as mentioned earlier. Heavy drinker are men in their late teens or early twenties. The risk of problem drinking is increasing in the lower socio economic group Thus we came to conclusion to give health education to 100 people of age 20 to 30 in sowripalayam and assess their knowledge through post test.

MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY STUDY POPULATION: 100 males. SAMPLE SIZE: 100 STUDY AREA: sowripalayam near PSG hospitals, Peelamedu, Coimbatore. SAMPLING: purposive sampling. We included the first 100 eligible and willing participants. Once we reached the required sample size of 100, we stopped recruiting. INCLUSION CRITERIA: We selected males between the age group 20-40 yrs in sowripalayam, Coimbatore.

CONT… EXCLUSION CRITERIA: We excluded People who were not the permanent residents of sowripalayam. People who were not between the age group of 20-40 yrs. INTERVENTION: through health education sessions using charts, posters, pamphlets. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: We used Epi info and SPSS v10 statistical packages. paired ‘t’ tests and chi square tests were used to find out the statistical significance of the differences in pre test and post test scores. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION: informed consent obtained.

TIME LINE CHART analysis post test health education pre test preliminary preparation questionnaire community introduction review of literature study question

0

5

10 weeks

15

20

ACTION ON CNS

PEOPLES AFFECTED 100%

4 15

90%

100%

10

80%

80%

28

70%

60%

63

no action

94

depr

40%

stim

20%

27

60%

45

age&sex community

40% 30% 20%

44

40

6

1

2

0%

IS IT A DISEASE? 7

Staggering

1 6

100%

90%

90%

80% 70%

LEG

50%

10%

0%

100%

HEG

24

13

6

80% 44

70%

60% don' tknow 50%

93

40%

no yes

60%

leg

62

50%

CNS 92

30%

30% 49 20%

20%

10%

10%

0%

0%

20

1

2

acting eye

40%

5

2

1

2

ORGAN AFFECTED 100%

IF ALCOHOLIC IN YOUR HOME? 100%

3 22

90% 80%

12

17

90% 80%

70%

70%

43

60%

lung

50%

heart

95

liver brain

40% 30%

46

60% 50%

harshword

9

10%

2

1

2

2

12

20%

24

17

0% 1

DOES ALCOHOL INCREASE SEXUAL ACTIVITY

36

22 1

44

46

2

DRINKING LEADS TO 100%

42

rehablitate

30%

10%

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

fate conceal

40%

20%

0%

62

54

90%

18

80%

5

8 2

70%

don’t know

60%

don't

50%

agree

40%

no skin problem no brain damage 58

84

no ulcer

30% 20%

10 2

10%

blurring

19 6

0% 1

2

6

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3

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A project done by Dr. Somasundram and Dr. Ponnudurai two psychiatrist of MMC Chennai on the prevalence of alcohol abuse among medical students. The subjective responses thus obtained from 274 students revealed that 9.52% boys and 1.89% girls abused alcohol once a month. 4.42% students turned out to be weekly abusers. Our projects showed only 36 out of hundred were having the habit of consuming alcohol. A study was carried out by Dr. Mathruboothan & Dr. Ramachandran two psychiatrist of Chennai to assess the drinking behaviour in rural population. It was found that 81.6% of them having serious drinking behaviour, 18.4% of them had hazardous drinking behaviour out of 386 students Our project showed that nobody had severe drinking habit; all were only weekly or monthly drinkers. We have done a study to increase awareness in the people about the hazards of alcoholism and should a increase in knowledge of 50.01% of pretest score

Improve communication among public Good health education is necessary to aim at better results. We should recommended the government to ban the alcoholic shops & bars. Advertisement of the various brands of alcohol (in indirect ways) should be prohibited The knowledge about the hazards of alcoholism should be taught to the community from the schooling itself. Plan and finish the project without break as people may drop out.

We did not do the project among whole population in that area. It is only among those 100 we selected. So we cannot claim what is being reported as the true ‘prevalence’ of alcoholism in the region. Due to the limited scope of our project, we could not produce any noticeable behavioural modification – i.e. discontinuation of the use of alcohol. The improvements effected were in the knowledge and attitudes. Break of 3 months in doing the project so we missed few people whom we selected and had to once again search for the people. Many people refused to accept that they were alcoholic though they drink; this did not give us the true data on number of people who have the habit of drinking.

After our health education we noticed a significant increase in awareness. We were able to achieve 50.01% of pretest score increase in awareness among the public this made us realize that continued health education was essential to bring about more awareness. Awareness on hazards of alcoholism through health education can help to reduce social problems & economic burdens on the society as well as safeguard the health of people.