Short Communication QUANTITY AND PREVALENCE W ITH GENDER COM PARISON FOR ALCOHOL CONSUM PTION AM ONG COLLEGE STUDENTS 1 1 1 1 1 Abdul Azeez , Ahamed Faizal , Amrish Ranjan , Anjana R. , Anjuna K.C. , 1 1 2 3 Anupam S. , Aparna M . , Rashmi Kundapur & Harsha Raj 1 2 3 MBBS Students (III year), Associate Professor, Social worker, Department of Community Medicine, K.S. Hegde M edical Academy, Nitte University, Deralakatte, M angalore - 575 018, Karnataka, India. Correspondence: Rashmi Kundapur Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, Nitte University Deralakatte, Mangalore - 575 018, Karnataka, India. M obile : +91 9880 496567 E-mail : dr.rashmi.kundapur@gmail.com Abstract : Introduction : Alcoholism is the recent trend among college students. Various studies conducted in India as well as in the West show clear indications of increasing prevalence of alcohol consumption among youngsters. Studies conducted abroad also revealed that the gap between males and females consuming alcohol is narrowing Objective : Our study was aimed at measuring the prevalence of alcohol consumption among college students and analyzing its variation with respect to gender. M aterials and M ethods : A survey was carried out in the colleges under NITTE University. Students present at the day and time of visit were covered. A questionnaire was prepared comprising of a set of 14 questions covering the main objective of the survey. The students were asked to fill the questionnaire irrespective of their gender or whether they consume alcohol or not. Results : We have conducted our survey in 1150 college students.713 females and 337 males participated in the survey.Out of 1150 students, 304(26.4%) consumes alcohol.167 (54.9%) were males and 137 (45.1%) were females. Most of them were social drinkers . Majority of them consumed 2-3 drinks in one sitting. Tendency of binge drinking is high. Conclusions : The prevalence of alcohol consumption comes up to a quarter of the total population surveyed most of them being social drinkers with males outnumbering females but with a visible reduction in the observed gap.. A survey was conducted among students of 3 colleges to acquire the necessary data which were analyzed to form the conclusions. Key Words : Gender, Alcohol consumption, Social drinking, Binge drinking Introduction: Based on studies conducted by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism clear trends towards higher prevalence of both 30day use and having been drunk in the last 30 days among adolescent; it is significant that 19.6 % of them reported using alcohol in the previous 30 days and 6.7 % reported having been drunk that time. All of them are underage drinkers. Furthermore, the high prevalence of drinking at an early age bodes ill for psychological development among youth because of the increased risk for both alcohol related problems Access this article online Quick Response Code (eg: poor performance, more substance using) and other occurring problems (e.g.: delinquency, sexual activities). Consistent with national surveys conducted in previous years, geographically the north-east and north-central regions had the highest prevalence of alcohol use by young people, followed by the west and south. There were few differences between metropolitan and non metropolitan areas. Among racial and ethnic groups, white youth generally had the highest prevalence of alcohol use followed by Hispanics. African Americans had significantly lower levels of alcohol use compared with whites or Hispanics across all grade levels. Researchers also suggested that differences in alcohol use between males and females are converging (White and Huselid 1997) but it appears that there is more 105 NUJHS Vol. 4, No.2, June 2014, ISSN 2249-7110 Nitte University Journal of Health Science Keywords : Gender, Alcohol consumption, Social drinking, Binge drinking - Rashmi Kundapur Published online: 2020-04-24