Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUNDSubstance abuse as an epidemic among people in India has assumed alarming dimensions.Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances including alcohol and illicit drugs.Driving Under the Influence (DUI) of drugs is an unspoken danger on the roads.The effects of specific drugs differ depending on how they act in the brain.There is one death every minute in India due to road accidents.Drunken driving is one of the leading causes of road fatalities.Aim-To study the pattern and prevalence and pattern of substance abuse among drivers in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. MATERIALS AND METHODSA community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among native drivers of vehicles including goods carriers.One district of each state, i.e.Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were chosen out of convenience. RESULTSA total of 328 drivers were included in the study.Alcohol was the most commonly used substance abuse in both states.Prevalence of alcohol in Punjab and Himachal was 40% and 64%, respectively.Age and education was significantly associated with the use of illicit substance of abuse. CONCLUSIONThis study showed that quite a number of drivers do substance abuse and there were significant associations between various risk factors, social factors and substance abuse among the drivers.
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2736888641