Knowledge of Tobacco Cessation among Adult Patients Visiting a Rural Satellite Center: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

AbstractThe prevalence of all types of tobacco use among men has been reported to be high in most parts of India (generally exceeding 50%). Nearly 95 to 100% of tobacco users develop periodontal diseases that have a diminishing effect on oral health.A structured paper-based self-administered questionnaire comprising 15 close-ended questions was formulated for the purpose of data collection for this cross-sectional survey and a sample size of 323 was estimated. Total enumeration sampling method was followed. A significant gender-wise and socioeconomic-status-wise difference was observed based on the form of tobacco used. In this cross-sectional study, 54 (16.7%) individuals began the habit before the age of 15 years, of which 14.2% of the individuals used the smoked variant and 2.4% of the individuals used the smokeless variant of tobacco.Total 265 (82%) individuals were aware that the habit was injurious to their health, of which 90% males and 86.4% females were aware of the harmful effects of the habit. While the awareness among the upper socioeconomic group was higher, the lower socioeconomic group displayed a lower level of awareness.To advocate effective tobacco cessation programs, understanding the dependence on tobacco habit and their knowledge and attitude toward quitting tobacco plays a major role. Hence the present study was conducted with an objective to assess the knowledge and attitude of the patients toward tobacco cessation.