A Study to Determine the Prevalence of Alcohol Consumption among Engineering College Students and to Assess their Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Alcohol Consumption and its Ill Effects in Selected Private Engineering Colleges of Rajasthan

Background: Alcoholism is a worldwide social and medical problem over the past 30-40 years. Alcohol consumption has increased in quantity and frequency.Adolescent's substance use and abuse remain serious concern regarding today's youth. Alcohol is the most commonly used recreational drug.

Objectives: (1) To determine the prevalence of alcohol consumption among engineering college students. (2) Toassess the knowledge of engineering college students regarding alcohol consumption and its ill effects. (3) To assess the attitude of engineering college students regarding alcohol consumption and its ill effects. (4) To find out the relationship between knowledge and attitude of engineering college students regarding alcohol consumption and its ill effects. (5) To find out the association between knowledge of engineering college students with selected factors. (6) To determine the association between attitude of engineering college students with selected factors.

Material and Methods: A Non-experimental, Descriptive co-relational survey design was used for the study. Data was collected from 100 male engineering students of 2^nd and 3^rd year of selected private engineering colleges. Convenient sampling was used for selecting the colleges and simple random sampling was used for selecting the samples. Structured knowledge questionnaire and likert attitude scale was used for data collection.

Results: Majority (53%) of the engineering college students had average knowledge regarding alcohol consumption and its ill effects. There was significant positive correlation (0.39) between knowledge and attitude of the engineering college students. There was significant relationship between knowledge and selected demographic factors with family history of alcoholism and educational status of father. There was significant relationship between attitude and selected demographic factors with family income, occupation of father, family history of alcoholism and educational status of father.

Conclusion: Nowadays drinking alcohol has become a new trend among the college students. Alcohol is not an ordinary commodity but a toxic substance in terms of its direct and indirect effects on a wide range of body organs and systems. Nursing personnel can educate and counsel students and general population to change their attitude regarding alcohol consumption and help them to stop consuming alcohol.