Prevalence, knowledge, attitude and nicotine dependence among ESI-insured populations of Delhi NCR region: Institutional study

AIM: To assess the prevalence of tobacco consumption among the ESI-insured patients. The study also assessed the knowledge, practice, and attitude among industrial workers as well as nicotine dependence with different forms of tobacco products consumed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among industrial workers from various industries (small and large scale) insured under the employee state insurance corporation scheme. The study was conducted for 3 months included 500 workers of which 470 were males and 30 were females. A predesigned, pretested, and structured interviewed administered questionnaire was used to collect the data on sociodemographic factors, reasons for tobacco consumed, and level of dependencies among industrial workers. Questionnaire also included questions related to awareness regarding health hazards and lesion present in the oral cavity as a result of tobacco consumption. Fegarstrom scale was used to access nicotine dependency level. A Hindi translated version of Fegarstrom test for Nicotine dependence in the questionnaire was used which included six standard questions for both smokeless and smoked form. RESULT: Majority of both males and females consumed tobacco in smokeless (58.8%) form. Out of which 92.85% in males and 7.15% in females followed by the smoke (28.8%) form. 93.04% in males and (7%) in females (79.86%) of the tobacco users in our study were aware that consuming tobacco causes health related problems. 38.6% of the users have moderate dependency in both smoke and smokeless form. Seventy six percent of the consumers feel that they didn't have any changes in the mouth by consuming tobacco and thus never thought of quitting tobacco. CONCLUSION: Tobacco consumption among the ESI-insured patients is high. Execution of tobacco cessation programs are required to curb this trend.