Alcohol Consumption in India: An Analysis of IHDS Data

Abstract

Introduction: Harmful use of alcohol result in 3 million people die each year, which means 5.3% of all deaths worldwide. Alcohol has a contribution on the global burden of disease and injury which accounts approximately 5.1 per cent of the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and approximately 13.5 per cent of the total deaths in the age group 20-39 years were caused by alcohol consumption. Objectives: To understand the changes and differentials in alcohol consumption in India and its states, and to examine the determinants of alcohol consumption in India. Data Source and Methodology: The present study has used the national representative Indian Human Development Surveys (IHDS) I (2004-05) and II (2011-12). Bivariate analysis was used to show the prevalence of alcohol consumption concerning some selected socioeconomic and demographic background variables. The Chi-square and multivariate logistic regressions were also employed to estimate the odds ratio (95% CI) for alcohol consumption. STATA and Arc GIS 10.1 software were employed to carry out the analyses. Findings: The alcohol consumption was two per cent higher in 2004-05 (37%) than the recent survey of IHDS (2011-12) (35%) in India. In addition to that, there were some states where the consumption of alcohol had increased from 2004 to 2012 like Mizoram (44%), Kerala (19%), and Jammu and Kashmir (16%). In contrary to that, there were also a few states where alcohol consumption had decreased from 2004 to 2012 like Rajasthan (8%) and Tamil Nadu (5%).