Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is one of the most consumed psychoactive substances in the world. The deleterious impact of alcoholism is a major public health issue worldwide due to its consequential long-term, social and economic damage. Besides these socioeconomic effects, alcoholism also results in various...

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Main Author: Deekshitha Alla
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 2025-01-01
Series:International Journal of Medical Students
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Online Access:http://ijms.info/IJMS/article/view/2954
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author Deekshitha Alla
author_facet Deekshitha Alla
author_sort Deekshitha Alla
collection DOAJ
description BACKGROUND: Alcohol is one of the most consumed psychoactive substances in the world. The deleterious impact of alcoholism is a major public health issue worldwide due to its consequential long-term, social and economic damage. Besides these socioeconomic effects, alcoholism also results in various degrees of physiological aberrations that lead to abnormalities in cognitive and behavioral functions. In India, it is estimated that approximately 75 million people consume alcohol. Evaluation of the impact of alcohol consumption on cognition becomes the need of the hour due to the interference of cognitive decline with daily function and independence. AIMS: To evaluate cognition ability in alcoholics with a prolonged history of alcohol intake using blinded Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and to compare cognition between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. METHODS: The study includes 30 alcoholic males without any comorbidities (experiment), attending the outpatient department and 30 healthy appropriate non-alcoholics (control) within the age group of 18-45 years of age. Assessment of alcohol intake is done using Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire and cognitive assessment was performed using blinded Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to make it feasible for illiterates. The data was collected and entered into MS-EXCEL sheet and independent sample t test was applied for tests of statistical significance (p-value < 0.001 will be considered as significant). RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects in the experimental group is 40.5±8.5 yrs and that of control group is 39.6±9.82 yrs. In the study, 23.3% were light drinkers, 40% were moderate and 36.6% were light drinkers. The study has shown statistically significant correlation between experimental (12.5±3.95) and control (18.9±2.71) groups.  (p<0.001). Our results included a crucial finding that alcohol consumption has significant impact on cognitive decline. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that long-term alcohol consumption has a detrimental influence on cognition. Studies of the cognitive repercussions of alcohol ingesting with the aid of using the usage of the actual international countrywide represented database are scarce within the literature. Higher information on the variations within the effect of alcohol use on cognitive impairment in older adults may also offer precious facts on their care. Conflicting results among various studies could be because of differences in tools used to evaluate cognitive dysfunction; the definitions of the quantity and pattern of alcohol drinking, smoking status, educational and occupational attainment, comorbidities, and psychotropic drug use.
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spelling doaj-art-3babc3e661e246c095ca772d954347e72025-08-20T02:58:41ZengUniversity Library System, University of PittsburghInternational Journal of Medical Students2076-63272025-01-0112Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort StudyDeekshitha Alla0Andhra Medical College BACKGROUND: Alcohol is one of the most consumed psychoactive substances in the world. The deleterious impact of alcoholism is a major public health issue worldwide due to its consequential long-term, social and economic damage. Besides these socioeconomic effects, alcoholism also results in various degrees of physiological aberrations that lead to abnormalities in cognitive and behavioral functions. In India, it is estimated that approximately 75 million people consume alcohol. Evaluation of the impact of alcohol consumption on cognition becomes the need of the hour due to the interference of cognitive decline with daily function and independence. AIMS: To evaluate cognition ability in alcoholics with a prolonged history of alcohol intake using blinded Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and to compare cognition between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. METHODS: The study includes 30 alcoholic males without any comorbidities (experiment), attending the outpatient department and 30 healthy appropriate non-alcoholics (control) within the age group of 18-45 years of age. Assessment of alcohol intake is done using Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire and cognitive assessment was performed using blinded Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to make it feasible for illiterates. The data was collected and entered into MS-EXCEL sheet and independent sample t test was applied for tests of statistical significance (p-value < 0.001 will be considered as significant). RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects in the experimental group is 40.5±8.5 yrs and that of control group is 39.6±9.82 yrs. In the study, 23.3% were light drinkers, 40% were moderate and 36.6% were light drinkers. The study has shown statistically significant correlation between experimental (12.5±3.95) and control (18.9±2.71) groups.  (p<0.001). Our results included a crucial finding that alcohol consumption has significant impact on cognitive decline. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that long-term alcohol consumption has a detrimental influence on cognition. Studies of the cognitive repercussions of alcohol ingesting with the aid of using the usage of the actual international countrywide represented database are scarce within the literature. Higher information on the variations within the effect of alcohol use on cognitive impairment in older adults may also offer precious facts on their care. Conflicting results among various studies could be because of differences in tools used to evaluate cognitive dysfunction; the definitions of the quantity and pattern of alcohol drinking, smoking status, educational and occupational attainment, comorbidities, and psychotropic drug use. http://ijms.info/IJMS/article/view/2954alcoholCognitionMoCA
spellingShingle Deekshitha Alla
Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study
International Journal of Medical Students
alcohol
Cognition
MoCA
title Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study
title_full Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study
title_fullStr Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study
title_full_unstemmed Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study
title_short Assessment Of The Impact Of Alcohol Intake On Cognition – A Cohort Study
title_sort assessment of the impact of alcohol intake on cognition a cohort study
topic alcohol
Cognition
MoCA
url http://ijms.info/IJMS/article/view/2954
work_keys_str_mv AT deekshithaalla assessmentoftheimpactofalcoholintakeoncognitionacohortstudy