SCREENING FOR TOBACCO ABUSE IN THE WORKPLACE SETTING: - A CROSS SECTIONAL SURVEY.

Abstract

Background: - Abuse of drugs is one of the biggest curse that modern society has come across. It is not conned to any one country or region alone, but has widely aficted the globe. Of the various drugs abused, the most widely distributed and commonly used drug in the India is tobacco. Objective: - To assess the patterns of tobacco use among auto rickshaw workers in Rohtak City. Materials and Methods: - This was a cross sectional hospital based study and included 50 auto rickshaw workers. A semi structured questionnaire with questions regarding socio demographic prole, tobacco use pattern, knowledge about harmful effects of tobacco use and Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence were administered. Results: - The mean age of the participants were 32.68 years with average monthly income of 9400 rupees. Maximum participants were having middle and primary level of education and most of them were married. Most of them were having rural background (38%) and smoking was the major mode of tobacco use among majority of subjects (70%). Majority of the smokers and tobacco chewers reported moderate to high dependence (56%) as per Fagerstrom test. Conclusion: - We observed a high dependence level on nicotine in terms of smoking and smokeless tobacco use in the workplace setting. We needs to adopt a more holistic and coercive approach to ght the problem of tobacco. But the dim part of the management is that people were unable to accept the dependency that become a hurdle for them to seek professional help.