A Prevalence of Tobacco Consumption and Its Contributing Factors among Students of a Private Medical College in Belgaum Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Tobacco consumption epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats that theworld is facing and attracts the attention of researchers to identify the cause for the same in specificgroups. Medical students act as mentors to fight against tobacco use, but several reports suggest that agood number of medical undergraduates are themselves addicted to tobacco use. Thus, the objective ofthe study was to determine the prevalence of tobacco consumption and its association with variousfactors among undergraduate medical students.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 372 undergraduate medicalstudents from first to fourth year during November 2013 to January 2015. A pre-designed, pre-tested,structured and self-administered questionnaire was used. Statistical analysis was done using SPSSsoftware version 16. Data was analyzed for percentage, Chi-square test and regression analysis to findassociation between tobacco use and various independent variables.RESULT: The mean age of the participants was 21.2 (SD=2.28) years with a male-female ratio of 1.92:1.The prevalence of tobacco use was 27.1% (n=101). The overall prevalence of smoking and smokelesstobacco use was 22.6% (n=84) and 7.8% (n=29) respectively. The prevalence of current tobacco use was24.2% (n=90). Among the ever tobacco users, about 3% (n=11) had quit using tobacco. Tobaccoconsumption was observed to be significantly associated with male gender (p<.001), increasing age(p<0.01), residing in hostels (p<.001) and with a parental history of using tobacco (p<.001).CONCLUSION: The prevalence of tobacco use in smoking and smokeless form among undergraduatemedical students was high.This has important implications in the strict implementation and monitoringof smoking-related rules in hostels of medical colleges, especially those related to peer-support.