Awareness about effects of tobacco and areca-nut use in school children of Ahmedabad, India: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey.

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONTobacco use usually starts in the adolescent age group and continues in adulthood. This study’s aim was to identify knowledge regarding the adverse effects of tobacco and areca-nut use among high school children of Ahmedabad, India.METHODSAn anonymous self-administered close-ended questionnaire was designed for the study. Principals of 9 schools, 3 municipal and 6 government-aided, were approached and written informed consent was obtained. A total of 3055 students studying in grades 7–12 were included. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS 16.0. Chi-squared test was applied to investigate any differences between the responses of consumers and non-consumers, while Cramer’s V was applied to analyze the strength of association between the awareness of ill-effects and tobacco product consumption.RESULTSOf the 3055 children, 3% felt that tobacco use was definitely not harmful to health while 84% felt that it was. In all, 65% of respondents were aware that tobacco use caused cancer, 7% answered that it caused breathing problems, 5% said it caused heart problems, 0.3% answered that it caused paralysis, 4.3% felt it caused no health problems, whereas 18% thought that it caused multiple issues. With regards to the role of media, 78% had seen many anti-smoking warnings in the media, 15% had seen a few, 5% had seen none. There was a statistically significant difference between the tobacco users and and non-users with regards to exposure to media (p<0.001), discussions in class (p<0.001) and general awareness (p<0.001), but a weak association between awareness and tobacco consumption was identified (p<0.05).CONCLUSIONSAwareness about the harmful effects of tobacco is high among school children of Ahmedabad, though use may still be prevalent.