Abstract
Background
The study analyzes the association between substance use among scheduled tribe men mostly known for their primitiveness, geographical isolation, insecurity, social, educational, and economic backwardness, and non-scheduled tribe men in India’s northeastern state and the eastern state of West Bengal.
Methods
The analysis of data representative across the country from the National Family and Health Survey's fifth wave (NFHS-5), which was conducted in 2019-2020, evaluated the prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use among 12,950 men between the ages of 15 and 54. Logistic regressions and bivariate analyses were performed to analyze the relationship between the socio-demographic determinants of substance use among ST and non-ST men.
Results
It has been found significant that 30.62% of non-ST males and 39.14% of ST males in the study’s sample consume any form of tobacco, whereas 49.23% of ST men and 29.56% of non-ST men consume alcohol. Men in the middle age groups, lower or uneducated, divorced, separated, or deserted, mainly from the urban residence; others, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian religions belonging to the wealth quintiles of the poorest to richest; also, the unorganized workers consumed higher quantities of substances. Based on a correlation study between substance use and socioeconomic factors, middle-aged males who work in unorganized jobs, follow other religions, are from worse socioeconomic quintiles, are divorced, separated, deserted, or widowed are much more likely to consume substances.
Conclusion
This study concludes that both smoking and non-smoking tobacco substance, mostly alcohol, is more common among ST men compared to the non-STs in WB and NEI due to low sociodemographic status. The study also highlights the regional differences in substance use among both communities. However, there is a need to address substance misuse among the most vulnerable socioeconomic groups as it concerns their health and well-being.
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Availability of Data and Material
The datasets and materials used are accessible on the DHS website at https://dhsprogram.com/data/.
Abbreviations
- NEI:
-
North Eastern States of India
- ST:
-
Scheduled Tribe
- NFHS:
-
National Family Health Survey
- WB:
-
West Bengal
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Acknowledgements
The DHS program of the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) India has been acknowledged by the authors for collecting data on alcohol and tobacco usage among men. The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) for providing funding and the University of North Bengal’s Department of Geography and Applied Geography are also acknowledged by the authors for giving research settings, respectively.
Funding
This research work has been carried out with financial support from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) Funded Research Project (Major) entitled “Understanding Quality of Life (QoL) of the Tribes in the Hilly Region of Darjeeling and Kalimpong District, West Bengal: A Future Road Maps for the Sustainable Development” (F.No.Gen.-32/2021-22/ICSSR/RP, Dated: 22-03-2022), and the Scholar, namely “Dr. Indrajit Roy Chowdhury, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography & Applied Geography, University of North Bengal, West Bengal, India,” is the awardee of ICSSR Major Research Project.
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Manabindra Barman1: visualization, validation, conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, software, created tables, figures, writing-original draft, writing-reviewing, editing. Dr. Indrajit Roy Chowdhury2: supervision, reviewing, funding acquisition, project administration.
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The study used a secondary dataset from the Demographic Health Survey of India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS), which contains no information that may be used to identify the survey participants personally. NFHS used the usual questionnaire to get consent before and throughout the investigation. The datasets are available on the DHS site; however, access is only permitted after registering and submitting the required research interest.
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Barman, M., Chowdhury, I.R. Substance Uses and Associated Sociodemographic Factors Among Male Tribes and Non-Tribal Communities of Eastern and North Eastern States in India: An Evidence-Based Study from the National Family Health Survey-5. Glob Soc Welf (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-023-00328-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-023-00328-0