Oral Tobaccco and Mortality in India

Abstract

This comprehensive review includes large-scale pan-India surveys and regional studies. Every aspect of smokeless tobacco, including variations in social, economic, demographic, gender, and education stratifiers, is presented. This evidence-based presentation thereby provides insight not only to assess the burden but can serve as a base, leading to the development and encouragement of research in closing the existing gaps in knowledge. It can also provide a track to formulate tobacco control strategies as well as to reinforce and potentially guide tobacco control policy aimed at addressing the tailored needs in the Indian context. The recommendations expand the tobacco control spectrum and are the first of their kind in the literature to focus on cessation programs as a paramedical subject to draw the attention of not only policymakers but also to integrate medical and dental educational institutions, health care professionals, and tobacco users to synergistically develop successful tobacco control measures.