Transition of Alcohol Use Behaviours Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Background: The restrictions that were imposed in the course of the lockdown in the initial months of this pandemic necessitated intense behavior change in most individuals. The concerns of those who need alcohol were especially in focus. Aim: The study aimed at understand alcohol use behaviours in a young adult Indian population and to explore changes in these behaviors during the initial phase of the pandemic and to compare if the group with higher drink problems is showing different behaviors to those who have fewer drink problems (based on AUDIT score). Method: The survey comprised questions on alcohol consumption; craving, drinking patterns, self-monitoring and illegal alcohol purchase. The participants responded for two sets of these questions: Pre-pandemic and Pandemic. A total of 167 participants (100 = male; 65 = female; 2= other) responded to the survey over a span of 3 months (May’2020-August’2020). Results: Cronbach’s alpha for the pre-pandemic and pandemic survey questions was found to be 0.919 and 0.929 respectively indicating a high consistency. Age of First Drink was moderately negatively correlated with Alcohol Usage (-0.348) and Craving (-0.305). Consumption Quantity and Frequency of drinking were only found to have a significant relationship with Phase of Drinking for High AUDIT group. For Low AUDIT group, only the consumption frequency had a significant relationship. However, it was interesting to note that all the alcohol use behaviours had a significant relationship with Nature of drinking in the pre-pandemic phase. Although during the pandemic all behaviours except self-monitoring behaviour had a significant relationship with Nature of drinking. Conclusion: High AUDIT score group had fewer drinks and drank less often during the pandemic times. Meanwhile, the Low AUDIT score group did not change how many drinks they had but they drank less often. Self-monitoring frequency was found to similar between High and Low AUDIT groups during the pandemic. Implications for future disaster management were discussed.