Prevalence of Tobacco, Smoking and Alcohol Use among People with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in India

A BSTRACT Introduction: Diabetes mellitus remains a significant health concern that affects 537 million people globally, and this number is expected to increase rapidly over the years. Smoking, tobacco and alcohol use remain a significant risk factor for the development and worsening of the health of individuals with Diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based cross sectional observational study. This is a subset of the data which was collected as a part of a diabetes registry which was done at seven sites across India identified by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), including private and public sectors with representation from North, South, East and North East India. The data was collected for all type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Aim and Objectives: The data was collected as a part of diabetes registry to create a data set of patients who are ready for clinical trials. The details were collected as a part of the subset of diabetes registry data about addictions of smoking, alcohol and tobacco in this population. Results: A total of 14920 patients were enrolled in this study. Most participants belonged to the urban population (57%), and maximum patients were enrolled from Karnataka (47%). The addiction to tobacco, smoking and alcohol use was more among the urban population (5.57, 9.9, and 10.5%). Females in urban population had more addiction to tobacco, smoking and alcohol than in rural populations (1.44, 1.17, and 10.3%). Tobacco use was highest among the diabetic subjects in Meghalaya (4.1%). The smoking habits were maximally noticed among the patients from Karnataka (7.33%). Alcohol use was highest among patients from Karnataka (7%). Conclusion: This study has helped us to understand the addiction pattern of tobacco, smoking and alcohol amongst the diabetes mellitus population in our country. The addiction rate was higher amongst this population in spite of their diagnosis of diabetes mellitus.