Socio-Demographic Profile and Factors Attributing to Initiation of Tobacco Use Among Tobacco Consumers in Bellary, India.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: After China, it has been estimated by the WHO that India would have second largest number of smokers in the world. The National Family Health Survey-3, 2005-06, data revealed that 57% of adult men and 3.1% of adult women used one or more tobacco products. Among adolescent students the Global Youth tobacco survey 2006 estimated that 17.3% of boys and 9.75 % of girls in India are tobacco consumers. Most common to start tobacco consumption was peer pressure and curiosity. OBJECTIVES: 1) To study the socio-demographic profile of Tobacco consumers in Bellary 2) To find the factors attributing to initiation Tobacco consumption in Bellary. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted among 600 tobacco consumers (Both smoke & smokeless form) in Bellary from January 2011 to June 2011. In this Purposive sampling method was used to get the study subjects from each ward. A pre-tested and semi-structured proforma was used to collect the information. RESULTS: In the present study out of 600 subjects majority were belong to age group 19-45 years (59.1%), were literate (58.6%), 64.2% were using tobacco since more than ten years, around one third of the study subjects had started using tobacco before the age of 18 years. Peer pressure (49%) was the most common reason to initiate tobacco consumption. CONCLUSION: Tobacco consumption was more among literates. Many people had started consuming tobacco in there early age only. Peer pressure was the most common reason to initiate tobacco consumption.

Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco Use in Children & Adolescents: Clinical Profile and Comparison

“…Amongst the clinical parameters, peer pressure was unequivocally the commonest reason (70%) for initiation of tobacco use. This result is concordant with the available literature from India and abroad [3,17,16]. It is a well known fact that using tobacco is related to psychosocial factors, including stress, social support, attitude and belief toward smoking behavior, social norms, and social networks [18,19].…”

“…India has one of the highest youth smoking rates in the world [2]. Another large scale multisite survey in India focusing on the child and adolescence population conducted among more than 4000 children of age range [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] years. This study revealed that tobacco was the commonest substance of abuse and nearly 75% of the study population were using it in the last month [3].…”

Determinants of awareness on pictorial health warnings on tobacco products in an Eastern state of India

“…The awareness on PHWs varies from 40% to 96% in India. [ 7 9 12 15 ] Higher proportion of awareness on PHW was reported from the hospital setting at a dental college in Bangalore (92.6%). [ 15 ] Similarly, higher proportion of awareness on PHW was reported among tobacco users from Bellary (72.5%) and Ranchi (96.1%).…”

“…According to Karinagannanavar et al .,[ 7 ] the awareness of PHWs among tobacco users was found to be 73%. Assuming an awareness level of 70% among the general population, we estimated a sample size of 292 at 5% absolute precision and 95% confidence level, after adjusting for a finite population of 3000.…”

“…Studies have reported inadequacies in the awareness and understanding of PHWs in India. [ 7 8 9 10 11 12 ] Bihar is one of the states with reportedly high consumption of tobacco, particularly smokeless tobacco (SLT). [ 13 ] Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the level of awareness of PHWs on tobacco products and their correlates among adults attending the outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care facility in the state of Bihar, India.…”