Hazardous alcohol use in rural southern India: nature, prevalence and risk factors

BACKGROUND

There is a dearth of data on the hazardous use of alcohol in rural India.

METHODS

We examined the nature, prevalence and factors associated with hazardous use of alcohol among men in a rural community in southern India. We used stratified sampling to select subjects from the Kaniyambadi block and employed 'AUDIT', a standard instrument, to assess the use of alcohol.

RESULTS

The prevalence of life-time use, use in the past year and hazardous use of alcohol was 46.7%, 34.8% and 14.2%, respectively. Using Indian made foreign liquor (OR 20.51; 95% CI 8.81-47.75) and living in a village which brewed illicit alcohol (OR 2.82; 95% CI 1.39-5.72) were risk factors for hazardous use while education (OR 0.39; 95% CI 0.21-0.72) was protective. These factors remained significantly associated with hazardous use after adjusting for age and education using logistic regression.

CONCLUSION

The relationship between the availability of illicit and commercial alcohol and its hazardous use suggests the need for an alcohol policy which takes into account health and economic issues and also implements the law to prevent the negative impact of problem drinking.

Pyrene-derived novel one- and two-component organogelators

A new class of alkyl-chain-appended pyrene derivatives 4-14 were synthesized and evaluated for their gelation abilities. Depending on the nature of the linking group, these compounds gelated a number of organic solvents, either in the presence or in the absence of the acceptor molecule 2,4,7-trinitrofluorenone (TNF). Compounds with ester, ether, or alkyl linkages gelated a number of hydroxylic and hydrocarbon solvents by means of a charge-transfer interaction with TNF, while compounds with amide, urethane and urea linkers formed gels on their own in a variety of solvents by means of pi-pi stacking and hydrogen-bonding interactions. The Xray crystal structure of urethane (S)-12 showed hydrogen-bonding and stacking features, as suggested by the model. The gels obtained were investigated by spectroscopic and electron microscopic techniques which provided structural insights.