Prevalence of Alcohol Consumption and Factors Associated with the Alcohol Use among the Youth of Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur

Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among youth. Also, early initiation of alcohol use (before 14 years of age) is a predictor of impaired health status. A cross-sectional descriptive study using a modified standard questionnaire was conducted among 250 youth of Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur. Data was objectively analyzed in SPSS full version 23. Overall, 56% of youth reported current drinking, with male (37.6%) outnumbering female (18.4%). 32.8% of youth were lifetime abstainers while 73.6% of current drinkers were found to drink in the past 30 days. The mean age of initiating drinking alcohol was found to be 17 years. 61.9% were introduced into the alcohol by their friends. Almost half of the respondents (44.7%) drink beer. Female usually drink jaad/chyang, beer and wine whereas male usually drink jaad/chyang, beer, distillery products and mix. Among those who drink in past 30 days, 49.5% reported binge drinking (male 47.6%, female 1.9%). Association of alcohol consumption was found to be highly significant with age group, gender, ethnicity, family history of alcohol use and friend‘s history (p ≤ 0.0001 at CI 95%). Effective intervention strategies addressing the underage drinking need a great focus from community level to center level to prevent underage alcohol consumption.