Tobacco use: A major risk factor for non communicable diseases in South-East Asia region

Abstract

Tobacco use is a serious public health problem in the South East Asia Region where use of both smoking and smokeless form of tobacco is widely prevalent. The region has almost one quarter of the global population and about one quarter of all smokers in the world. Smoking among men is high in the Region and women usually take to chewing tobacco. The prevalence across countries varies significantly with smoking among adult men ranges from 24.3% (India) to 63.1% (Indonesia) and among adult women from 0.4% (Sri Lanka) to 15% (Myanmar and Nepal). The prevalence of smokeless tobacco use among men varies from 1.3% (Thailand) to 31.8% (Myanmar), while for women it is from 4.6% (Nepal) to 27.9% (Bangladesh). About 55% of total deaths are due to Non communicable diseases (NCDs) with 53.4% among females with highest in Maldives (79.4%) and low in Timor-Leste (34.4%). Premature mortality due to NCDs in young age is high in the region with 60.7% deaths in Timor Leste and 60.6% deaths in Bangladesh occurring below the age of 70 years. Age standardized death rate per 100,000 populations due to NCDs ranges from 793 (Bhutan) and 612 (Maldives) among males and 654 (Bhutan) and 461 (Sri Lanka) among females respectively. Out of 5.1 millions tobacco attributable deaths in the world, more than 1 million are in South East Asia Region (SEAR) countries. Reducing tobacco use is one of the best buys along with harmful use of alcohol, salt reduction and promotion of physical activity for preventing NCDs. Integrating tobacco control with broader population services in the health system framework is crucial to achieve control of NCDs and sustain development in SEAR countries.

Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors amongst teaching staff of IIMSR medical college, Badnapur, Jalna, Maharashtra

“…5 Our study showed hypercholesterolemia in 12.68%, hypertriglycerides in 25.35%, raised LDL in 2.82%, raised VLDL in 15.49% and low HDL in 22.82% which were much lower than the other studies done by Sharma et al, Alzeidan et al and Akintunde et al 1,5,7 The prevalence of cigarette smoking was in 8.45% among males and none of the women smoke which was similar to Sabale et al was (6.2%) and Ketkar et al and was much lower than Takur et al was (24.3%), Sharma et al was (12.8%) and Alzeidan et al was (12%). [5][6][7][8]11 The habit of alcohol consumption was seen in 7.04% which was lower than Sabale et al was (13.04%) as this study included all staff and higher than Sharma et al was (2.6%) as the study included only the habit of heavy drinking.…”

Assessment for Risk Factors of Non-communicable Diseases in Employees (Teaching and Non-Teaching) Working in Medical College, Maharashtra

“…There are few studies which assess all the behavioural and biological risk factors in all the employees (teaching and non-teaching) working in Medical College. Thakur JS et al [11] got the prevalence across smoking among adult men in India as 24.3%. According to NFHS-III [12] the percentage of men and women in Maharashtra who drink alcohol is 24% and 0.4% respectively.…”

Smoking and smokeless tobacco use in nine South and Southeast Asian countries: prevalence estimates and social determinants from Demographic and Health Surveys

“…Although smokeless tobacco (SLT) use is common among women, smoking among women is increasing [8],[9]. In Southeast Asia, tobacco is used in diverse forms, including cigarettes or bidis (dried tobacco rolled in paper or leaf), SLT such as chewing khaini (tobacco with slaked lime and aromatic spices), surti (dried tobacco leaves for chewing), or paan masala (tobacco with aromatic spices), sucking gutkha (mixture of tobacco and molasses available in small sachets), applying gul or gudaku as dentifrice, and inhaling nas and naswar (nasal inhalation of tobacco powder) [10].…”