In 2000, approximately 30% of India's population was aged 10 to 24 yr, that increased to 53% when children younger than 10 were included. Alcoholism and alcohol related problems are on an increase in India. This may be due to various factors like adolescent's crisis, modernization, peer pressure, increased socio economic status, easy availability. The major concern is that alcohol consumption is associated with certain other behaviors and long range consequences. Most of the problems can be minimized, if not completely prevented by making the public aware of the complications related to alcoholism. In this context, we attempted to study the effectiveness of a structured programme on the knowledge and attitude of towards alcoholism among adolescents so that knowledge gained from this study can be utilized to make effective public health programmes. It was conducted using a quantitative, experimental approach using a prexeprimental design. Data were collected using a structured knowledge assessment questionnaire and attitude inventory before after giving a structured teaching programme conducted in school among 100 higher secondary school students selected by convenient sampling. Findings revealed that adolescents had inadequate knowledge as evidenced by only 6% of adolescents had good knowledge regarding alcoholism while 76% had average, and 18% had poor knowledge and with respect to attitude 21% of adolescents had unfavorable in while 51% had moderately favorable and only 28% had unfavorable attitudes. Structured teaching was found be effective in increasing the knowledge and creating a attitude towards alcoholism among adolescents at.001 level of significance.The knowledge gained from this study can be utilized to develop and implement effective primary prevention strategies to tackle alcoholism and its associated morbidities.
Alcoholism, Knowledge, Attitude, Adolescents, Structured teaching programme
