Socio demographic factors associated with tobacco use in rural Maharashtra

Background: The epidemic of tobacco use is shifting from developed to developing countries, where increased use is expected to result in a large disease burden in the future. Findings from countries of SEAR reveal that tobacco use is higher among the rural, illiterates, and poor population. Aims: To assess use of tobacco in various groups of people and awareness regarding its ill effects in rural Maharashtra. Setting and Study Design: Urban health center of MIMER Medical college, Cross sectional. Materials and Methods: The survey was conducted in field practice area of urban health centre near Pune, Maharashtra. The estimated sample size was 378 with α = 0.05 and 80% power of test. Alternate families were selected by systematic random sampling. All the family members between the age group 15 and 75 years of the selected family were included in the sample. Data was collected using a pre-tested pre-validated questionnaire. Statistical Analysis Used: Data was analyzed using the chi-square test. Results: The study population comprised of 426 people. Percentage of tobacco users decreased with an increase in level of education and the difference was statistically significant (χ2 = 54.56; P < 0.0001). Type of tobacco use differed with sex and education but not with age. Peer pressure turned out to be the major cause (80.5%) for starting the use of tobacco, followed by influence of family members (11.2%). Percentage of female tobacco users was found to be on higher side in this population as compared to other studies. Conclusion: Thus, effective measures are needed to address the uneducated female population of rural India, in order to decrease the use of tobacco significantly