Pattern of tobacco use among school going children in Jaipur city, India

Background: Tobacco use among school children is becoming serious problem in developing countries. Objectives: To find the prevalence of tobacco consumption among school-children and factors associated with it. Methodology: 18 schools were selected in Jaipur using simple random sampling. A sample of 3250 students in age group of 14-18 years (grade 9-12) studying in the 18 Government schools of the Jaipur city were studied during August-October 2013 using pretested, closed-ended self-administered questionnaire with prior permission from school authority and verbal consent. All the students of the age group 14-18 years who participated voluntarily were included in the study. The exclusion rate was 9.57%. Results: In the present study, total of 3250 children were recruited. The age range was 14-18 yrs. The mean age of the children was 15.5 year (SD +/-_1.08). Of the 18 schools that were recruited for the study 8(44.4%) were urban and 10(55.6%) were rural in location. The proportion of children who were current users of tobacco was 4.1% (Boys: 6.29%, Girls: 1.42%). Among current users, nearly 77.78% of children consumed smokeless form of tobacco (Boys: 54.81% Girls: 22.96%). A small proportion of children, a little over 7% used/consumed both forms of tobacco. Study showed that 41.48% of tobacco users reported tobacco initiation below the age of 12 years. Conclusion: Consumption of tobacco among adolescents is an emerging health problem in Jaipur city. The findings of this study will help to design, implement and evaluate tobacco control and prevention programs in standard format.