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

Background: Evidence suggests that tobacco use starts at an earlier age. Despite the purported usefulness to discern the high risk groups and thus finding out potential facets of prevention and early intervention cursory attention has been paid to determine the profile of child and adolescent tobacco users. Aims: This study aimed to find out the socio-demographic and clinical profile of adolescent tobacco users attending a specialized clinic in a tertiary care hospital and those seeking treatment in community camps. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of consecutive subjects enrolled in the Tobacco Cessation Centre (TCC). Majority of these subjects were referred by medical-surgical departments of the hospital, and attending community outreach camps. Tobacco Cessation Clinic-Intake Form developed by WHO has been modified and administered for the purpose of the research. A comparison has been made between the smokers and smokeless tobacco users. Results: Amongst the clinical parameters, peer pressure was unequivocally the commonest reason (70%) for initiation of tobacco use. The commonest maintaining factor appeared to be presence or anticipation of withdrawal symptoms (33%). A substantial majority (92%) of our study sample did not receive any medication or even treatment prior to that. Most common cause for relapse was peer pressure (43%), followed by craving (31%). Comparison of smoker and smokeless tobacco users have shown that most of the smokers belong to nuclear families and are more educated. Also physical harmful effects of smoking are significantly higher than the smokeless tobacco. Conclusion: This study illustrates some important facts regarding the clinical and socio-demographic profile of various forms of tobacco users. These could help in understanding tobacco use in adolescence and also have showed key areas in which preventive or therapeutic interventions could be planned.