Awareness and Pattern of Tobacco Use among the Medical Students of Government Medical College

Abstract

Introduction: Nearly 6 million people die due to tobacco every year and this figure will increase to 8 million tobacco-attributed deaths per year by 2030 with 80% of them occurring in developing countries. Objective: To study the awareness and pattern of tobacco use among the undergraduate medical students of Government Medical College, Haldwani. Material and Methods: A Cross-sectional study was conducted among 303 medical students using a predesigned and pretested, semi-structured self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using SPSS v 16. Results: Among 303 participants, 44(14.5%) were smokers.  Majority of the students (97.73%) were more than 20 years of age at the time of initiation of tobacco use. Cigarette smoking was most common form (79.55%) of abuse. Male students were using tobacco significantly higher than that of females (?²=36.68). The effect of parental tobacco use on tobacco consumption habits of the users were significantly higher than non-tobacco users (?²=180.75). The tobacco consumption was significantly increased among the senior students as compared to that among the juniors (?²=15.29). Awareness about harmful effects of tobacco abuse was very high (90.76%) and mainly they got knowledge from media. 84.16% students support ban on tobacco use in public places. Conclusion: We can conclude that though the awareness among medical students regarding harmful effects of tobacco use was very high but they got this knowledge mainly from the electronic media, so it is necessary to introduce teaching on tobacco dependence and cessation early in the courses of the medical colleges.