Abstract

Background: Alcoholism is one of the major public health problems in both developed and developing countries. Conventionally, governments design and implement various measures to combat the alcohol menace for the benefit of the public at large. One such measure is the ban of alcohol sale. Objectives: The aim of this study is to explore the opinion regarding the ban of alcohol sale among adult population residing in semi-urban area of Chennai and to measure the association between selected factors associated with the supporters of alcohol ban among the study population.
Materials and Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional study was carried out among the adult population residing in semi-urban area near Chennai in June 2016. House-to-house survey was conducted, and pre-designed questionnaire was used as a study tool.
Results: In our study, we found that 91.6% (95% confidence interval 88.9%, 94.3%) of study population supported the ban of alcohol. Among these, 40.3% supported for a gradual ban of alcohol. Gender and alcohol status were the factors significantly associated with opinion on ban of alcohol and were statistically significant. Conclusion: Most of the population supported the ban of alcohol vindicated that the policy of alcohol ban is the felt need of the community, especially among women.