| Summary: | Introduction
Tobacco use usually starts in the adolescent age group and continues in
adulthood. This study’s aim was to identify knowledge regarding the adverse effects
of tobacco and areca-nut use among high school children of Ahmedabad, India.
Methods
An anonymous self-administered close-ended questionnaire was designed
for the study. Principals of 9 schools, 3 municipal and 6 government-aided, were
approached and written informed consent was obtained. A total of 3055 students
studying in grades 7–12 were included. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel
and SPSS 16.0. Chi-squared test was applied to investigate any differences between
the responses of consumers and non-consumers, while Cramer’s V was applied to
analyze the strength of association between the awareness of ill-effects and tobacco
product consumption.
Results
Of the 3055 children, 3% felt that tobacco use was definitely not harmful to
health while 84% felt that it was. In all, 65% of respondents were aware that tobacco
use caused cancer, 7% answered that it caused breathing problems, 5% said it caused
heart problems, 0.3% answered that it caused paralysis, 4.3% felt it caused no health
problems, whereas 18% thought that it caused multiple issues. With regards to
the role of media, 78% had seen many anti-smoking warnings in the media, 15%
had seen a few, 5% had seen none. There was a statistically significant difference
between the tobacco users and and non-users with regards to exposure to media
(p<0.001), discussions in class (p<0.001) and general awareness (p<0.001), but
a weak association between awareness and tobacco consumption was identified
(p<0.05).
Conclusions
Awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco is high among school
children of Ahmedabad, though use may still be prevalent.
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