Prevalence of Substance Abuse in Rishikesh: A Community Based Study

Abstract

Introduction: There are various problem which have harmful impact on health, these problem are mainly behavioural with multi-functional causation. Amongst such problem, addiction of substance abuse is on rising trend, overall globally. The study conducted to determine the prevalence of substance abuse in the community. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in Rishikesh Tehsil. People of age group between 15-60 years residing in study area were recruited as study participants. Total sample size covered in this study was 804.Since the population of urban and rural area is almost equal, so to get equal repre-sentative from urban and rural area, 402 study participant were selected from each strata as rural and urban area respectively. The validated interview schedule were then analysed using appropriate statistical techniques like percentage, chi-square test and p-value. Results: overall prevalence of substance abuse was found to be 37.4% out of which the prevalence of current users was 31.34% re-spectively. Conclusion: The study revealed that in spite of having strict law for prohibition of substance abuse, people are still addicted. There is a need to change either in law or in behaviour of people at large.