A Study to Evaluate and Assess the Prevalence and Risk Factors of Smoking among Young Males

Abstract

Introduction: Smoking is known to be the single most preventable cause of death and disability. According to the WHO, 50% of the total population are young adults who consume 6 trillion cigarettes per year. It has been found that smoking kills nearly 6 million people each year, leading to a total of 100 USD economic loss globally. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 807 participants, selected using probability proportionate to size (PPS) sampling method. The main objectives of the study were to find out the prevalence and to assess the risk factors in the young group of population. Results: It was observed from our study that the overall prevalence of smoking came out to be 20.44%, out of which, 15.73% were current smokers and 4.70% were ever smokers. Conclusion: There is a need for establishing a smoking cessation clinic in every university which would help in motivating students to quit.