A Cross Sectional Study of Smoking among Youth Population

Abstract

Background: Tobacco use in the form of smoking is increasing among youth population and they are the vulnerable group to initiate this habit also. One fifth of all worldwide deaths attributed to tobacco use in India, where more than 8,00,000 people die and 12 million people become ill. The prevalence of tobacco use in India ranged from 14% among aged 13 – 15yrs to 57% among males aged 18-49 yrs. Tobacco use is continuously increases with a rate of 3.4% annually. Present study was conducted to find the prevalence of smoking and factors associated with smoking among youth population. Methods: Present Study is a cross-sectional study, conducted amongst 100 youth individuals to find out prevalence of smoking and factors associate with it. Results: The main observations of the study are 43% of population were ever use tobacco as smoking. Median age for initiation of smoking habit is 19 years of age. Most of young individuals start smoking for enjoyment and it is become addiction & habit later on. Conclusion: very high prevalence was found in youth population and currently smoking habits is increasing over period of times when compared with previous study.