AUTHOR=Narasimha Venkata Lakshmi , Nath Santanu , Alam Benazir , Kumari Bipasa , Kumari Pooja , Kumari Shalini , Kaur Jagdish , Varshney Saurabh 

TITLE=Prevalence and association between alcohol, tobacco, and COVID-19: a study from a tribal predominant district in eastern India

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1415178

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2024.1415178

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Introduction: Alcohol and tobacco use has been proposed to significantly affect COVID-19 outcomes. The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use among COVID-19-positive patients and compare it with the general population prevalence rates. It also aimed to assess and determine the association between the severity of COVID-19 illness and the complications with alcohol and tobacco use. Method: For this, a cross-sectional, retrospective, telephone-based study was conducted using a structured questionnaire among COVID-19 diagnosed patients in the district of Deoghar of the Indian state of Jharkhand. A multinomial logistic regression is done to determine the association. Results: Among 1425 patients interviewed, tobacco and alcohol were used by 22.31% and 9.96%, significantly more than the prevalence of tobacco (Z= 4.9485, p <0.00001) and alcohol use (Z= 7.118, p<0.00001), respectively, in the district (tobacco-11.7% and alcohol-4.8%). In a regression model, patients with co-morbidity had higher odds of severe (3.34 (1.99-5.62)) and moderate (2.95 (1.97-4.41)) COVID-19. Young (0.12 (0.04-0.38)) and middle-aged individuals (0.23 (0.13-0.4)), people below the poverty line 0.28 (0.11-0.69) are at lower odds of severe )), alcohol users (1.53 (1.03-2.28)), incomplete vaccination (3.24 (1.49-7.01)), and patients with comorbidity (3.6 (2.79-4.68)) were found to have higher odds of post-COVID-19 complications. Discussion: People with COVID-19 in our study population had significantly higher tobacco and alcohol use compared to the general population. Tobacco and alcohol use significantly increases the risk of post-COVID-19 complications. The study highlights the need for addiction treatment services to prevent complications during future pandemics.