Association between Alcohol Consumption and Smoking Habit in the General Population of Rural Nepalese Community

Abstract

Background: Various studies have shown that alcohol consumption and smoking habits are complementary and associated behavior for each other, and these behaviours are influenced by socio-cultural and socio-demographic factors.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted on 2013 among 648 general people of rural community of Ramechap district, Nepal. Questionnaires were used to collect information on age, gender, smoking habit, alcohol consumption habit and occupation. Frequency, percentage as well as mean and standard deviation (SD) were calculated as descriptive statistics. To measure the association between alcohol consumption and explanatory variables ( i.e. sex, smoking habit and occupation), we used univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis to calculate unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) and adjusted odds ratios(aORs) with 95% confidence interval (95%CI).Results: Alcohol consumption  was found to be associated with different explanatory variables as follows : smoking habit (Yes: aOR =3.90, 95%CI = 2.58, 5.92), sex (Male: aOR = 3.64, 95%CI = 2.27, 5.82), occupation (house wife: aOR = 0.79, 95%CI =0.44, 1.43; teacher: aOR = 1.88, 95%CI = 0.68, 5.24; government service:  aOR = 1.99, 95%CI = 1.11, 3.59; and others: aOR =  0.61, 95%CI = 0.25, 1.47).Conclusions: Our findings showed an association between alcohol consumption and smoking habit among the population under study.