Asian Journal Of Modern And Ayurvedic Medical Science (ISSN 2279-0772)
Vol.2,No.1, January 2013.[
©
The Author 2013]
Published By Mpasvo Letter No.V-34564,Reg.533/2007-2008,All Rights Reserved.For Permissions E-Mail : maneeshashukla76@rediffmail.com &
chiefeditor_ajmams@yahoo.in
.
Original Research Article
A study on tobacco use, its knowledge and practice among school going children in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
(Original Research Article)
Dr. Ankita Singh 1 Dr. Rajul Vivek 2
Declaration
T
he Declaration of the authors for publication of Research Paper in
Asian Journal of Modern and Ayurvedic Medical Science (ISSN 2279-0772)
Dr. Ankita Singh 1 Dr. Rajul Vivek 2
the authors of the research paper entitled
A study on tobacco use, its knowledge and practice among school going children in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh.
(Original Research article)
declare that , We
take the responsibility of the content and material of our paper as We ourself have written it and also have read the manuscript of our paper carefully. Also, We hereby give our consent to publish our paper in ajmams , This research paper is our original work and no part of it or it’s similar version is published or has been sent for publication anywhere else.We authorise the Editorial Board of the Journal to modify and edit the manuscript. We also give our consent to the publisher of ajmams to own the copyright of our research paper.
Received November 24 , 2012 ; Accepted December 25, 2012 , Published January 1 , 2013
............................................................................................................................................................
Abstract
Tobacco-related health hazards have been a major area of concern especially in a developing country like India. Accounting for the reason of 5 million deaths per year, tobacco has emerged as a deadly addiction with increased susceptibility towards the adolescent and early adulthood age groups.
The present study was undertaken to study the socio-demographic factors influencing the knowledge and tobacco abuse in the study population. 500 students of a government school in Ghaziabad district were taken as subjects. The data with current user smokeless forms were slightly more than smokers. Parents of 80% students were literate which was in accordance with the student knowledge about the harmful effects of tobacco. Further, need for enhanced implementation of school based awareness programs and anti-smoking measures is required for early prevention of adolescents to become target of this dreadful habit.
Keywords
- tobacco, smoking, adolescents
................................................................................................................................................................
Introduction
Tobacco has been the most preventable yet leading cause of mortality due to cancer in our society
. Nearly 5 million people die due to tobacco use every year and this figure will
increase to 10 million tobacco attributable deaths per year by 2020 with 70% of them occurring in developing countries.[1] It has been estimated that an average of 5.5 minutes of life is lost for each cigarette smoke.[2] A
lot of efforts to prevent tobacco consumption by adolescents has been enforced by the government yet aggressive tobacco control efforts is required since adolescents continue to initiate smoking and also lack the awareness and willingness to opt for supportive resources to quit this habit.
Ease in access to tobacco and related products have worsened the problem of oral cancer in India.
57% of Indian men and 11% of women are tobacco consumers and that an estimated 55,000 children are initiated into tobacco use every day are the data of a study done by National Health Survey 2005-2006
[3]
India
is home to one sixth global population
and responsible for over 80,000 deaths per year in that are tobacco related.[4] Wide prevalence of consumption of tobacco and tobacco-related products in the adolescent age group has increased the risk of oral cancer manifold as documented by studies. [5-9]
.Being a developing country, increased concern to prevent, intervene and spread awareness to counteract the problem of the early age of initiation of this habit is required. . According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), 17.5% of adolescents in India aged 13-15 years were using tobacco in some form or the other form. [10
Various factors can contribute and determine the increased use of tobacco among adolescents including
age, sex, state, region, and family influence like, exposure to media, advertisements, peer pressure and lack of awareness. [11, 12]
The present study was undertaken with the objective of identifying the tobacco-related awareness present in the adolescents in the city of Ghaziabad and the assessment of various factors involved in affecting the knowledge and abuse related to tobacco in that age group.
This epidemiological study was conducted in district Ghaziabad using a predesigned questionnaire. The study was conducted in a co-educational government inter college involving students within age-group of 12-17 years after taking informed consent of college authorities and guardians. Sample size for this study was 500 students with 1:1 gender ratio. The data was analyzed after assessing the answer sheets obtained from each candidate. This was followed by an educational lecture given to the same students with the aim of spreading awareness regarding the ill-effects of tobacco and the benefits and methods of quitting this undesired habit.
This article is based on GYTS (Global Youth Tobacco Survey), a project for international surveillance and comparisons of tobacco use, developed by WHO— through its Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI)—and the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA, which is intended to enhance the capacity of countries to monitor tobacco use among youth, and to guide the implementation and evaluation of tobacco prevention and control programs.
Observation
-
Distribution of study population by knowledge score and socio-demographic factors
|
Socio demographic factors
|
Knowledge Score
|
|
|
Poor (0-5)
n= 100
|
Average (6-10)
n = 220
|
Good (10-15)
n = 180
|
Total
n =500
|
|
Gender
|
|
|
|
|
|
Male
|
12(12%)
|
132 (60%)
|
106 (42.4%)
|
250
|
|
Female
|
24(24%)
|
77 (35%)
|
149 (67.7%)
|
250
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Age
|
|
|
|
|
|
10-12
|
38 (20%)
|
67 (35.26%)
|
85 (24.7%)
|
190
|
|
13-15
|
56 (35%)
|
44 (27.5%)
|
60 (47.5%)
|
160
|
|
16-18
|
57 (38%)
|
53 (35.3%)
|
40 (26.6%)
|
150
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Parents Literacy
|
|
|
|
|
|
Literate
|
60 (15%)
|
140 (35%)
|
200 (50%)
|
400 (80% of 500)
|
|
Non-literate
|
60 (60%)
|
25 (25%)
|
15 (15%)
|
100 (20% of 500)
|
Distribution of study population by their tobacco smoking practice
|
Ever used Tobacco
|
|
Yes
|
220 (44%)
|
|
No
|
280 (56 %)
|
|
|
|
Smoked in past 30 days
|
|
Yes
|
190 (38%)
|
|
No
|
310 (62%)
|
|
|
|
Used smokeless tobacco in past 30 days
|
|
Yes
|
205 (41%)
|
|
No
|
295 (59%)
|
|
|
|
Parental tobacco intake
|
|
Yes
|
180 (36%)
|
|
No
|
320 (64%)
|
Perception regarding tobacco use
|
Opinion to use tobacco in future
|
|
Ever User (220)
|
Non- user (280)
|
|
Definitely not
|
65 (29.5%)
|
195 (69.6%)
|
|
Probably not
|
98 (44.5%)
|
65 (23.2%)
|
|
Probably yes
|
49 (88.6%)
|
14 (5%)
|
|
Definitely yes
|
8 (22.3%)
|
6 (2%)
|
|
|
|
|
Knowledge regarding tobacco
|
|
Injurious to health
|
195 (88.6%)
|
245 (87.5%)
|
|
Non-injurious to health
|
11 (5%)
|
2 (0.8%)
|
|
No idea
|
14 (6%)
|
33 (13.5%)
|
|
|
|
|
Discussion- The present study included 500 school children with equal male to female ratio. The results revealed that 220 students (44%) were tobacco users
and the remaining 280(56%) had not tried tobacco products ever which was similar to a study done in west Bengal. [13] Among the study population, 190 students (38%) were current tobacco smokers also — amongst them 205 (41%) students were using tobacco in smokeless form.The data with current user smokeless forms were slightly more than smokers were which may be attributed to present trend of smoking epidemic in the developing world. Similar findings were opposite to the data found in findings in Nagaland (29.6%) and Sikkim (23.6%) and other North-East states in India where smoking was more common.[14-16] Documented by another article by Kumar et al Northern India young consumers frequently use smokeless tobacco more frequently which was supported by this study too.[17] another study among rural school children in Punjab documented use of smokeless tobacco by 67% of students. [18] Parents of 80% students were literate which was in accordance with the students knowledge about the harmful effects of tobacco in which more than 88% of tobacco user and 87% tobacco non-user students showed positive awareness response to health hazards by tobacco thus establishing influence of family atmosphere on the children. This was also established by another study conducted in Mumbai where emphasis of parental tobacco intake was high among students.[19] in another study among lower income group children in Delhi majority (80%) were known to the injurious effects of tobacco consumption. [20]
Even when only 163 among the ever user group and 260 students of the non- user group showed favorable opinion regarding stopping of tobacco use in future, theeffect can be further enhanced and made effective by implementing school based awareness programs and anti-smoking measures by involving the peers to help the resistance towards this habit.[21,22]
Limitations-
This study has several limitations that should be noted. It was based on cross-sectional data from self-reported survey responses.
Conclusion-
The use of tobacco consumption has been a significant public health hazard and we need to develop, implement and evaluate tobacco control programs to deal with this complex issue. A lot of effort has been done to identify the risk and impart preventive interventions yet the adolescent age group seems to be a large area of concern with the alarming increase in oral cancer in our country. IEC (information, education, communication) activities for prevention of the national tobacco control program are necessary to address this problem. Success in such efforts will require the contribution of teachers, parents and nongovernment organizations.
There is a need for strengthening Indian research efforts in the area of tobacco control and public health.
References
1. World Health Organization (WHO). Tobacco Free Initiative. (Online) 2010 (Cited 2007 Sept). Available from URL:
http://www.who.int/tobacco/en
.
2. Gupta VM, Sen P. Tobacco: The addictive slow poison. Indian J Public Health 2001; 45: 75-81
3. IIPS. National family Health Survey-II[ 1998-1999]. Bombay: International Institute of Population Studies;2000
4. Reddy KS, Gupta PC. Overall (all-cause) mortality due to tobacco. Report on Tobacco Control in India. New Delhi: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India; 2004.p. 87-88
5. Gupta PC, Sinha DN. Tobacco research in India. Indian J Public Health 2004; 48: 103-4.
6. Gupta PC. Tobacco and non communicable diseases. Indian J Public Health 2004; 48: 105-10.
7. Gupta R. Smoking, educational status & health inequity in India. Indian J MedRes 2006; 124: 15-22
8. Sushma C, Sharang C. Pan masala advertisement are surrogate for tobacco products. Indian J Cancer 2005; 42: 94-8.
9. Sinha DN, Gupta PC, Pednekar MS. Use of tobacco products as dentrifice among adolescents in India: questionnaire study. BMJ 2004; 328: 323-4.
10. World Health Organization (WHO). Report on Tobacco Control in India. (Online) (Last Cited 2009 dec). Available from URL:
http://www.who.india.org/SCN/Tobacco/Report/TCI-Report.htm
11. Reddy KS, Arora M. Tobacco use among children in India: a burgeoning
epidemic. Indian Pediatr 2005; 42: 757-61.
12. Mukherjee K, Hadaye RS. Gutkha consumption & its determination among
secondary school male students. Indian Community Med 2006; 31: 177.
13. Biswas Ashok Kumar, Biswas Jhuma
Tobacco use among urban school boys of Paschim Midnapore, India.
J Pak Med Assoc; 2010, Vol. 60, No. 9, 286-289
14 Sinha DN, Gupta PC, Pednekar MS. Tobacco use among students in the Eight North-eastern States of India. Indian J Cancer 2003; 40: 43-59.
15. Sinha DN. Gutkha Advertisement and Smokeless Tobacco Use by Adolescents in Sikkim, India. Indian J Community Med 2005; 30: 18-20.
16. Majra J, Basnet J. Prevalence of tobacco use among the children in the age group of 13-15 years in sikkim after 5 years of prohibitory legislation. Indian J Community Med 2008; 33:124-6.
17. Kumar S, Pundey U, Bala N, Tewari V, Oanh KTH. Tobacco habit in Northern India. J Indian Med Assoc 2006; 104: 19-24.
18. Kaur S, Singh S. Cause of concern in Punjab Villages. High levels of Gutkha intake among students. Vol. 7. TUS India: Lifeline;2002;73-4.
19. Jayant K, Notani PN, Gulati SS, Gadre VV. Tobacco usage in school children in Bombay, India. A study of knowledge, attitude and practice. Indian J Cancer 1999;28:139-47.
20
. Singh V, Pal HR, Mehta M, Kapil U. Tobacco Consumption and awareness of their health hazards among lower income group school children in national capital territory of delhi. Indian Pediatr 2007;44:293-95.
21.
Crone MR, Reijneveld SA, Willemsen MC, van Leerdam FJ, Spruijt RD, Sing RA. Prevention of smoking in adolescents with lower education: a school based intervention study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2003; 57: 675-80.
22. Sinha DN, Dobe M. Effectiveness of tobacco cessation intervention program. Indian J Public Health 2004; 48: 138-43.
