A study on habits of tobacco use among medical and non-medical students of Kolkata

BACKGROUND: Age-old practice “using tobacco” is a well known major global concern as it victimizes all its lovers by a host of chronic noncommunicable diseases including cancer; all develop very slowly and silently, and can cause premature death. OBJECTIVES: To assess the pattern of tobacco use among the medical and nonmedical college students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in Kolkata collecting anonymous data from 515 medical and 349 nonmedical college students of two medical and two general colleges, selected randomly. RESULT: Overall prevalence of tobacco use (18.3% vs 43.6%) and smoking (14.9% vs 40.7%) were significantly less in medical subjects, both across the sex and years of study. Lower rate of tobacco adoption at college level, higher quitting rate, correct knowledge regarding uselessness of filter attached with cigarette, and ill-effects of tobacco consumption were observed among medical participants. More nonmedical subjects were increasingly smoking compared to medical students. Filter-tipped cigarette was the top choice, and smoking was more prevalent mode of use among the nonmedical participants, most (62.3%) of whom were mild users. Curiosity was the top influencing factor for the initiation of tobacco use and two-third users wanted to quit. CONCLUSION: Although the mortal habits was comparatively less among medical students, the medical environment seemed to fail to curb the dreadful practice totally. Thereby it can be recommended that active behavior-changing communication is required for all sections of the society to tear out the social root of the problem instead of unimpressive vague health warnings in vogue.