Father's alcohol consumption and family well being.

Abstract

634 families were studied at MOH area Thambuttegama,30 families frome each 22 small villages were randomly chosen for study.Multistage sampling technique was used to find out the study population and "A family with a one or more children was taken as study unit.An interviewer administered questionnaire was used by the PHM of that particular area.Among fathers current alcohol consumption rate was 66.4 per cent most of them were farmers,earning 500-4000 Rs. per month.63.9 per cent of them consumed 'Kassippu' and 78.9 per cent of them drank 1/4-1/2 bottel of alcohol per day.33.2 per cent of them spent more than 25 per cent of their household income on alcohol consumption. Family where father and mother were more educated showed lower ferquency of alcohol consumption.The study showed that about 1/4 of ex-users had stopped drinking due to the influence of the family members.The associations between father's alcohol consumption and selected characteristics that reflect family well being such as family size, number of children who had never attended to school,school drop out before completing O/L and verbal and physical abuse of the wife by the husband were studied.