A Study to assess the Quality of life of clients with Alcohol dependence syndrome attending and not attending Alcoholic Anonymous group meeting in selected Alcoholic Anonymous group and in rural areas of Mysore and with a view to develop self instructional module

Alcoholism is a chronic, progressive disease. It is characterized by lose of control over drinking to the point that it interferes with one or more vital area of life such as personal relationship, job or health¹. Alcohol dependence is a strong desire to take the substance, difficulty in controlling substance taking behavior, a physiological withdrawal state, development of tolerance, progressive neglect of alternative pleasures or interests and persisting with substance use despite clear evidence of harmful consequences². Quality of life refers to individual personal satisfaction with the cultural or intellectual conditions under which the person lives. AA or 12 step programme is designed to assist in the recovery from addiction or compulsive behavior, remaining abstinent, reducing social problems related to alcohol consumption³.

To assess the severity of alcohol dependence among the clients not attending AA group meeting.

To assess the quality of life of client with alcohol dependence syndrome attending AA group meeting by using WHO QOL- BREF scale.

To assess the quality of life of client with alcohol dependence syndrome not attending AA group meeting by using WHO QOL-BREF scale.

To determine the association of quality of life of client with alcohol dependence syndrome attending and not attending AA group meeting with their selected personal variables.

To develop self instructional module on AA group meeting.

A comparative survey design was adopted for the study. The samples were selected by convenient sampling technique. 100 alcoholic dependents were selected for the present study, out of which 50 samples from AA group meeting and 50 samples from rural areas form Mysore. The tools used for the data collection were proforma for selected personal variables, severity of alcohol dependency questionnaire (SADQ) to screen alcohol dependency among not attending AA and WHO QOL BREF scale to assess the quality of life.

Findings of the study revealed that there is a significant difference between quality of life of alcoholic dependents attending and not attending AA by computing (98)’ value= 1.98 at 0.05 level of significance.

There is a significant association between QOL among alcohol dependents attending and not attending AA with their type of family, family history of alcoholism, educational status, religion and daily consumption of alcohol and other variables were not found to have significant association.

Alcohol dependency will deteriorate the QOL among dependent clients. Many medical treatments, therapies and self help groups are functioning to facilitate abstinence from alcohol. In that AA is one of the self help group which is very effective in improving QOL of alcoholics.