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Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, Volume 57, Number 7, July 2003, pp. 290-293 Smoking behaviour among arts student of a college in Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada B S Sajjan, J Chacko,* K Asha** Professor and Head; *MBBS Student; **Lecturer (Statistics) Department of
Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore.
Code Number: ms03002 INTRODUCTION Each year, tobacco products kill some 3 million people worldwide and this number is increasing. WHO estimates that, unless current smoking patterns are reversed, by the decade 2020-2030 tobacco will be responsible for 10 million deaths per year, 70% of them occurring in developing countries. Scientific evidence has been accumulating since early 1950's and more than 25 diseases are now known or strongly suspected to be causally related to smoking. The social acceptability of tobacco use contradicts the strong health education and health promotion messages discouraging it. Psychologists have found that teenagers, with still developing cognitive abilities, are likely to take the contradiction of health education and health promotion messages on the one hand and publicly sanctioned tobacco advertising, marketing and tobacco use on the other, as license to believe nothing at all. They are especially prone to cite these contradictions in justifying actions that suit their immediate desires such as smoking. Young people are at an impressionable age, peer pressures are intense and the probability that they will pick up high risk behaviour, such as smoking is high. Thus, a need was felt to carry out a study on the smoking habits and attitudes of arts students of a college with an aim to evaluate the smoking behaviour, knowledge of adverse effects and attitude towards smoking among randomly selected college students doing their three years of under graduation in Arts in Mangalore. Knowledge of links between smoking and disease and beliefs about smoking related to self confidence and body image was obtained. MATERIALS AND METHODS A pre tested pre designed questionnaire was given to 450 students in the classroom after prior permission from the Principal of the institution. Only 176 completed questionnaires were received from the respondents. Effort was made with the help of teachers to get correct information from the students. The survey was conducted in August 2002. Nine questions related to knowledge were given. Scores of +1 for right answer, -1 for a wrong answer and 0 for a response of do not know were given. This scoring system gave a range of 1 to 9, which was further classified as poor (score of 1-3), moderate (score of 4-6) and good (score of 7-9). Chi square test and Fishers' exact test were used for the comparisons. RESULTS The age sex distribution of the respondents is as shown in the table 1. There were 133 males and 43 females. Age ranged between 17 and 24 years. Majority were in the 19 year age (50 out of 176) followed by 21 year (36 out of 176). 96.6% were aware of the injurious nature of cigarettes. 62.5% were aware of the addictive potential. 80% knew beedi smoking was injurious to health. 67% knew that smoking was a risk factor for heart attack. 93.2% knew that it could induce lung cancer and 60.8% knew that smoking in pregnancy could lead to low birth weight infant. Only 34.1% knew that it was a factor for GI malignancy and 67.5% knew about risk of passive smoking. The knowledge of the respondents regarding the ill effects of smoking was moderate. 18.8% (33 out of 176) had poor knowledge about smoking, 38.1% (67 out of 176) had moderate whereas 43.1% (76 out of 176) had good knowledge (Table 2). A higher proportion of males were having a good knowledge while females were with moderate knowledge (Table 2). The knowledge level of males and females showed a statistical significance (p=0.04). The mean score of knowledge level of the smokers was 1.44 and that of non smokers was 1.1364. There was no statistically significant difference seen between the mean score of the smokers and non smokers. 33.1% (44 out of 133) of males were smokers. No female admitted to smoking. Among them 52.3% (23 out of 44) were occasional smokers. 63.6% (28 out of 44) started smoking between 16 to 20 years of age. 72.7% (32 out of 44) opined that smoking does not improve self image, 77.3% (34 out of 44) considered TV advertisements not influential in starting to smoke. 12.8% (17 out of 133) of the non smokers and 13.6% (6 out of 44) of smokers had either parent or brother smoking. 68.2% (30 out of 44) of the smokers wished to quit smoking. III effects and not the in thing seemed to be more common reasons to quit smoking. Parental pressure was influential in wanting to quit only in 13.6% (6 out of 44). 47.7% (21 out of 44) considered easy availability of cigarettes to be a factor for smoking. 34.1% (15 out of 44) were influenced by friends who smoked. Pan chewing was present in 6.3% (11 out of 176) and supari eating in 5.1% (9 out of 176). A higher proportion of the smokers chewed pan (15.9%, 7 out of 44) than non smokers (3% 4 out of 132). This showed a statistical significance (Table 3) 13.6% (6 out of 44) consumed supari amongst smokers while 2.3% (3 out of 132) among non smokers consumed supari, which was statistically significant (Table 3). 13.6% (6 out of 44) consumed supari amongst smokers while 2.3% (3 out of 132) among non smokers consumed supari, which was stastically significant (Table 3). Among those who preferred the company of smokers more males (48.9%) preferred the company of smokers than females (23.3%). 48% of the males felt that smoking women have appeal while 37.2% of women considered them to be appealing (Table 4). Both smokers and non smokers opined that anti smoking campaigns and legislation would control smoking. However, a higher proportion of males than females felt that anti smoking campaigns may not be useful in controlling smoking (Table 4). DISCUSSION Prevalence of smoking varying from 7.1%,1 8.2%2 have been reported in Indian studies. Higher prevalence among medical students has been reported.3,4 Smoking in women is less socially acceptable in India and proportion of tobacco users is low5 (1.1%). In our study none of the women admitted to smoking. Both smokers and non smokers were aware of the health hazards of smoking but facts like risk of heart attack and GI malignancy, effect on pregnancy and hazard of passive smoking were less known. Unlike other studies which show a higher proportion of smokers with a family member smoking,3,5 in our study no difference was noted. Tobacco use in children of age 10 to 15 years has been reported.5 In our study onset was noted in 16 to 20 year age group. Knowledge score on smoking was higher in males in this study. This could be due to the larger number of males in the study and that the exposure to smoking may be more in males. Among those who preferred the company of smokers more males preferred it. Supari and pan use were significantly higher among the smokers than non smokers. More males felt that antismoking campaigns are not useful to control smoking than the females. The study emphasizes that knowledge on health hazard on certain aspects has to be filled in, but knowledge imparting may not be the only component in effective control of smoking. SUMMARY 176 Arts students out of 450 students doing their under-graduation in an age range of 17 to 24 years returned a questionnaire designed to test their level of knowledge about smoking, attitude towards smoking and practice of smoking. 96.6% of the respondents were aware of the injurious nature of smoking. Potential to induce lung cancer was known by 93.2% of them, but only 34.1% knew it was a factor for GI malignancy. A higher proportion of males had good knowledge whereas females had moderate knowledge (p = 0.04). The incidence of smoking was 33.1%. A higher proportion of smokers chewed pan and consumed supari. 68.2% of smokers wished to quit smoking. Easy availability (47.7%) and influence of friends (34.1%) were the predominant reasons to smoke. Interestingly, 48% of males felt that smoking women had appeal. Anti smoking campaigns in addition to provision of information has to focus to towards a change in attitude to smoking. REFERENCES
Copyright 2003 - Indian Journal of Medical Sciences. The following images related to this document are available:Photo images[ms03002t4.jpg] [ms03002t3.jpg] [ms03002t2.jpg] [ms03002t1.jpg] |
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