A STUDY ON TOBACCO USE AMONG RURAL ADULTS

BACKGROUND: Tobacco is one of the leading causes of morbidity and premature death though ironically it is preventable. Recently tobacco use has increased in India where about 3/4ths of population lives in rural areas in whom, level of knowledge and awareness about the deleterious effects of tobacco is very low. A clear understanding of reasons leading to increased tobacco use is very important. In view of this, the present study was undertaken to find out the prevalence, attitudes towards tobacco use, prevalence of certain tobacco related oral health problems and their association with tobacco use. MATERIALS & METHODS: This study was as a cross sectional study conducted in 14 villages in Tamilnadu among adults (>= 19), both males and females and sample size was 654. Simple Random Sampling Technique was employed. A structured questionnaire was developed and house-to-house survey was conducted. Informed consent from the participants and approval of Institutional Ethics Committee of Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai were obtained. RESULTS: In this study, 69.6% of the respondents were in the age group of 31-60 years and 57.0% belonged to middle socioeconomic status. The overall prevalence of tobacco use (both smoking and smokeless form of tobacco) was 46% (95% CI 42.2% -49.8%) and the highest prevalence of tobacco use was found in the age group of 31-60 years accounting to 48.6% (95% CI 44.0-53.2). 18.6% of current users of tobacco and 2.5% of non users of tobacco had oral ulcers with odds ratio of 8.7(p< 0.001). It was found that only 58.4% of the total study subjects and 56.5% of current users of tobacco were aware of tobacco control Act and 53.5% of the total study subjects and 48.2% of current users of tobacco felt the need to make the Act more strict and stringent. CONCLUSION: To reduce the tobacco use in the society, the approach includes increasing the awareness about ill effects, tobacco control policies and treating the individuals with tobacco dependence. Not only is the designing of strict legislation or policies is important but also increasing the awareness about such policies in population especially rural population is very important.