YOUTH TOBACCO SURVEY AMONG MEDICAL AND PARAMEDICAL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: Tobacco use is a public health challenge across the world. This study was undertaken to study the knowledge, attitude and need for the education regarding tobacco cessation. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was undertaken in 500 medical, pharmacy and nursing students in Bagalkot city. The students were administered with a questionnaire containing questions pertaining to the tobacco use, degree of dependency, awareness, attitude and practice related questions. The results were presented as frequencies and percentages and chi square test was used as test of significance. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The overall prevalence of the tobacco use was 7% in this study. There was no statistically significant difference in knowledge related questions of current users, past users and nonusers. The attitude of the students was also to initiate some smoking cessation programs and to ban tobacco near the teaching institutions. The students expressed a positive attitude towards the inclusion of curriculum and training regarding the smoking cessation programs. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of the tobacco use was low and the students were in favour of including tobacco cessation programs in to their curriculum.