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Alcohol and Tobacco Use in a Tuberculosis Treatment Cohort during South Africa’s COVID-19 Sales Bans: A Case Series
- Source :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 5449, p 5449 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- MDPI, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Background: South Africa temporarily banned alcohol and tobacco sales for about 20 weeks during the COVID-19 lockdown. We described changes in alcohol and tobacco consumption after implementation of these restrictions among a small number of participants in a tuberculosis treatment cohort. Method: The timeline follow-back procedure and Fägerstrom test for nicotine dependence was used to collect monthly alcohol and tobacco use information. We report changes in heavy drinking days (HDD), average amount of absolute alcohol (AA) consumed per drinking day, and cigarettes smoked daily during the alcohol and tobacco ban compared to use prior to the ban. Results: Of the 61 participants for whom we have pre-ban and within-ban alcohol use information, 17 (27.9%) reported within-ban alcohol use. On average, participants reported one less HDD per fortnight (interquartile range (IQR): −4, 1), but their amount of AA consumed increased by 37.4 g per drinking occasion (IQR: −65.9 g, 71.0 g). Of 53 participants who reported pre-ban tobacco use, 17 (32.1%) stopped smoking during the ban. The number of participants smoking >10 cigarettes per day decreased from 8 to 1. Conclusions: From these observations, we hypothesize that policies restricting alcohol and tobacco availability seem to enable some individuals to reduce their consumption. However, these appear to have little effect on the volume of AA consumed among individuals with more harmful patterns of drinking in the absence of additional behavior change interventions.
- Subjects :
- Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence
Tuberculosis
Tobacco use
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
030508 substance abuse
Alcohol
heavy drinking
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
South Africa
Tobacco Use
0302 clinical medicine
Interquartile range
Environmental health
Fortnight
medicine
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
COVID
Ethanol
SARS-CoV-2
Brief Report
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
COVID-19
Tobacco Products
medicine.disease
chemistry
alcohol sales ban
Cohort
Communicable Disease Control
Medicine
alcohol policy
0305 other medical science
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16604601 and 16617827
- Volume :
- 18
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d03c2fac2a15bf8b64aaad9a923f51cc