Tobacco Usage and Attitude towards Tobacco Cessation among Prisoners in India – A Cross Sectional Survey

BACKGROUND: Tobacco is a highly addictive substance. Tobacco usage is considered one of the main causes responsible for the death of adults worldwide, with 4.9 million deaths occurring worldwide each year. And if the current tobacco usage patterns continue, it will cause some 10 million deaths every year by 2020. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive study was carried out among 566 prisoners of central prison Bangalore, who met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using a questionnaire and nicotine dependence was assessed using fagerstrom questionnaire. RESULTS: The study group was categorized based on the age, gender, imprisonment status and education. In this study, 87.5% subjects were smokers, and 15.9% were smokeless tobacco users. 69.1% mentioned they use more tobacco daily during incarceration than at liberty. 87.1% agreed with the fact that “prison stress” was a factor enhancing the need for tobacco usage. 69.1% mentioned as lack of freedom, 77.4% mentioned boredom as factors enhancing need for tobacco usage while imprisoned. While 69.9% mentioned stress as a factor that trigger tobacco usage at liberty. 69.6% mentioned that they had never attempted to quit tobacco. Fagerstrom scale for level of nicotine dependence smoking showed that for smoking form 62.7% were at very high dependence and for smokeless form 64.4% were at very high dependence. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest many implications for policy relevance, since the findings indicate the sales of tobacco products in the prison canteens.