Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir, in that order, have the lowest alcohol consumption among men. There is no way to know if there has been any change in alcohol or tobacco use since the last survey, as the two data sets are not comparable. In the 2015-16 survey, the data belonged to the age group 15-49 years, while in the latest survey they are for everyone over 15 years of age.
When it comes to alcohol use by women, Sikkim and Assam, with 16.2% and 7.3%, respectively, top the charts. But here also comes Telangana, beating Goa. Except for Telangana and Goa, most of the states in the upper part are in the northeast. Consumption among rural women is significantly higher than in urban areas in most states, which could also be due to less hesitancy in admitting to alcohol use compared to urban women. This difference in the prevalence of alcohol use also exists between men in rural and urban areas, but the difference is not as high as among women.
In all states, tobacco use, which includes chewing tobacco and smoking, is much higher in all states than alcohol use. Despite the established connection between tobacco smoking and lung cancer, and tobacco chewing and oral cancers, use remains highly prevalent. In India, previous studies had shown a higher prevalence of chewing tobacco than smoking. The highest tobacco consumption occurs in Mizoram, where 77.8% of men and almost 62% of women consume it. Tobacco use is highest among men and women in the northeastern states, including Assam. It is lower in Kerala (17%) and Goa (18%) in the case of men, although Himachal has the lowest tobacco consumption among women, only 1.7%
Monitoring of alcohol and tobacco use began with the last survey with a growing recognition of the burden of noncommunicable diseases in India and the role that consumption plays in causing them.
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