Paper Title
Prevalence, Pattern and Determinants of Substance Abuse: A Study in District Patiala (Urban), Punjab, India

Abstract
Background - Data on Substance abuse, its prevalence, Pattern of use, determinants and predictors are extremely limited in Punjab. A study by the State’s Department of Social Security Development of Women and Children in the year 2012, suggests that 67% households in Punjab had at least one drug addict in the family. Environmental conditions have substantial role to indulge into habit of substance use. Objectives - Estimation of Prevalence of substance abuse, determining pattern of Substance abuse and Socio-demographic determinants of substance use in district Patiala (Urban), Punjab, India during study time 2019-2021. Research Methodology -Present study is an observational cross-sectional quantitative study based on a sample of 311 conducted in three administrative blocks of district Patiala (Urban) from Sep,2019 to 2021. The Ethical Committee of the School of Public Health, SunRise University Alwar, Rajasthan, India approved this study. It included screening for participants, took informed consent, data collection by interviewing on the basis of pre-tested, detailed questionnaire (Schedule), recorded by Investigator and Statistical analysis was done by professional statistician by using software Microsoft Excel 2010. To make diagnosis of substance dependence, ICD-10 criteria were applied. Results and Interpretation -Prevalence of Substance abuse in District Patiala (Urban) was found 61.41%. Alcohol abuse 10.61%, drug abuse 23.79% and Multiple substance abuse 27.01% was prevalent among the sample. Desi (country) liquor was found to be more commonly consumed (28.30%). Tobacco products were found highly prevalent (45.66%) after Alcohol, followed by Opioids (18.97%), Cannabinoids (11.58%) and then Pharmaceutical drugs (06.75%). Cigarette (41.88%), Bidi (28.80%), Zarda (Chewable tobacco) 26.70%, Soota 17.28% and Smack 14.14% were found highly prevalent among urban addicts. Socio-demographic factors associated with substance abuse were age 21-25(25.65%) followed by 26-30 (16.23%), males 94.76%, Hindu 60.73%, general caste 48.69%, married 63.35%, Labrourers 33.51%, illiterate to secondary education 78.01%, nuclear family and Joint family almost equal 50.26% and 49.74% respectively, income ≤10000 (71.21%) and father using substance (32.46%).Correlates significantly associated with substance addiction found were Place of first use of substance (p=0.006), Frequency of substance use per day (p=0.0001), source of initiation of substance use (p=0.037), and reason of addiction (p=0.000).Impact of substance abuse significantly associated was Disapproved social behaviour (p=0.022), Impact on health (p=0.0001), Social and relationship problems (p=0.000) and failure to stop substance abuse(p=0.000). Conclusion - High prevalence of substance abuse found in district Patiala. There is need to expand the study to other districts of Punjab and need to change environmental conditions to build a system that is designed to help drug addicts to reconnect with the world. Keywords - Substance abuse, Prevalence and Pattern of Substance abuse, Drug abuse, Alcohol use, Prevalence, India.