Assessment of prevalence and knowledge, attitude and practice of tobacco consumption among school going adolescent boys in urban field practice area of medical college: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Tobacco abuse is one of the biggest curses that modern society has come across. It is not confined to any one country or region alone, but has widely afflicted the globe. The most susceptible time for initiating use of tobacco in India is adolescence and early adulthood, ages 15-24 years while some start as young as 10 years.Approximately 55,500 adolescent start using tobacco every day in India, joining the 7.7 million young people under the age of 15 who already use tobacco on a regular basis.Methods: It is a community based cross-sectional study conducted among school going adolescent boys of urban field practice area of medical college during July to September 2017. Data was collected through pretested semi-structured self -administered questionnaire given to students by the investigators. Data collected were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 17 software.Results: The prevalence of ever use of tobacco was 17.5% among school going adolescent boys in urban field practice area. In the present study it was observed that 174 (95.1%) adolescent boys had knowledge regarding hazards of tobacco. 110 adolescents (60.1%) had knowledge that passive smoking was harmful.Conclusions: The study suggests that the prevalence of tobacco consumption was high among school going adolescent boys in urban field practice area of medical college. The knowledge of students regarding harmful effects of tobacco was not adequate. Attitude and practice regarding tobacco consumption is also not satisfactory.