Tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices among urban low socioeconomic women in Mumbai, India

CONTEXT: Tobacco use is an important health issue globally. It is responsible for a large number of diseases and deaths in India. Female tobacco users have additional health risks. AIMS: The aim was to assess changes in pre and post-intervention tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices among women from urban low socioeconomic strata, after three rounds of interventions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A structured questionnaire was used to interview women living in low socioeconomic housing clusters in Mumbai, regarding their tobacco consumption, attitudes, and practices, by Medical Social Workers. These data were entered into IBM SPSS Statistics, version 20 and analysed. Interventions for tobacco cessation were provided 3 times over a span of 9 months, comprising of health education and counseling. Post-intervention questionnaire was introduced at 12 months. RESULTS: There was statistically significant improvement in the knowledge of women, following the interventions, with particular reference to poor oral hygiene and tobacco use being main cause of oral cancer (P = 0.007), knowledge of ill effects of second hand smoke (P = 0.0001), knowledge about possibility of early detection of oral cancer (P = 0.0001), perception of pictorial and written warnings on tobacco products (P = 0.0001), and availability of help for quitting tobacco (P = 0.024). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of smokeless tobacco use is very high among urban women from lower socioeconomic strata. Therefore, tobacco awareness programs and tobacco cessation services tailor made for this group of women must be planned and implemented.