Tobacco use among school personnel in Rajasthan, India

BACKGROUND: A very little information about tobacco use among school personnel is available. This is a step to have cross country and within country data using standardized methodology. AIMS: To obtain baseline information about tobacco use prevalence, knowledge and attitude among school personnel.
STUDY DESIGN: Two stage cluster sample.
SETTING: A state of Rajasthan.
MATERIALS AND MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study, using anonymous self-administered questionnaire. A sample of schools with probability proportional to the enrolment in grades 8-10. All school personnel in sampled schools were eligible to participate.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Percentage, 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: School response rate was 97.4% (75/77) and school personnel response rate was 67.2% (909/1352). Majority of school personnel (men 69%, women 31%) were school teachers (78.3%). The prevalence of ever any tobacco use was reported by 35.9%, more among men than women (46.2% vs. 13.0%). The prevalence of current daily smoking was reported by 14.4% (men 20.6%, women 0.8%) and occasional by 7.3%, where as current daily smokeless tobacco use was 11.7% (men 16.4%, women 1.1%) and occasional 13.6%. Current daily tobacco use was significantly more among men than women. Four out of nine reported their schools have a tobacco prohibiting policy for both students (48.4%) as well as for school personnel (44.4%) and about same (47.2%) reported their schools enforce its tobacco policy or rule. Over 85% of all school personnel strongly support the tobacco control policies and wanted training in tobacco cessation and prevention.
CONCLUSION: First study from Rajasthan to report tobacco use among school personnel. School personnel not only strongly support the tobacco control policies but also ready to work for its successful implementation with proper training.