ANNOUNCEMENTS
The study attempts to illustrate the tobacco use pattern gender-wise among the people of different age groups and the rationale behind the initiation of tobacco consumption and its high rate of prevalence. Research was conducted in order to acknowledge the level of awareness among the tobacco consumers about the anti-tobacco statutory warnings and communications and the impacts that they can cause on a consumer.
It was obtained from the study that only 48.3% of the total study population ever tried tobacco use in their lifetime. The trial rate was more than 50% among males whereas less than 50% among females. Maximum attempts at smoking or consuming smokeless tobacco were observed in the age gap of 15-30 years. Different triggers and influence of motivation were investigated and the most common revealed to be the zeal to explore the trends of tobacco consumption followed by influence of others, stress reliever and other specific reasons. The prevalence rate of tobacco consumption among the study population was found to be 57.7%. Prevalence rate was higher among men as compared to women. People with professional background and those belonging to students class reported the highest prevalence rate of tobacco consumption. The results displayed the higher prevalence rate among those who initiated tobacco consumption at an early age showing addictive reasons for continued consumption. Approximately 1/3rd of the population was found to be aware about the detrimental effects of tobacco consumption on health and efforts of 67.9% of population in quitting tobacco use. Also, around 88.45 population was familiar with the anti-tobacco warnings through various sources and provided with the information related to their belief about its consumption, but still almost half of them were either unsure of cessing tobacco use or didn’t even want to try to stop using it.
Keywords: Tobacco consumption, Initiation, Prevalence, Second-hand smoke, Awareness, Policy interventions
