rss
Tob Control 2003;12:e4 doi:10.1136/tc.12.4.e4
  • Electronic page

Tobacco use in India: prevalence and predictors of smoking and chewing in a national cross sectional household survey

  1. M Rani1,*,
  2. S Bonu1,*,
  3. P Jha2,
  4. S N Nguyen3,
  5. L Jamjoum2
  1. 1Indian Administrative Services, Jaipur, India
  2. 2Centre for Global Health, St Michael’s Hospital, and International Tobacco Evidence Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  3. 3Word Bank, Washington DC, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
 Manju Rani
 ; Indian Administrative Services, N-30, Bajaj Nagar Jaipur, India 302015; mranijhsph.edu
  • Received 22 April 2003
  • Accepted 10 September 2003

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and the socioeconomic and demographic correlates of tobacco consumption in India.

Design: Cross sectional, nationally representative population based household survey.

Subjects: 315 598 individuals 15 years or older from 91 196 households were sampled in National Family Health Survey-2 (1998–99). Data on tobacco consumption were elicited from household informants.

Measures and methods: Prevalence of current smoking and current chewing of tobacco were used as outcome measures. Simple and two way cross tabulations and multivariate logistic regression analysis were the main analytical methods.

Results: Thirty per cent of the population 15 years or older—47% men and 14% of women—either smoked or chewed tobacco, which translates to almost 195 million people—154 million men and 41million women in India. However, the prevalence may be underestimated by almost 11% and 1.5% for chewing tobacco among men and women, respectively, and by 5% and 0.5% for smoking among men and women, respectively, because of use of household informants. Tobacco consumption was significantly higher in poor, less educated, scheduled castes and scheduled tribe populations. The prevalence of tobacco consumption increased up to the age of 50 years and then levelled or declined. The prevalence of smoking and chewing also varied widely between different states and had a strong association with individual’s sociocultural characteristics.

Conclusion: The findings of the study highlight that an agenda to improve health outcomes among the poor in India must include effective interventions to control tobacco use. Failure to do so would most likely result in doubling the burden of diseases—both communicable and non-communicable—among India’s teeming poor. There is a need for periodical surveys using more consistent definitions of tobacco use and eliciting information on different types of tobacco consumed. The study also suggests a need to adjust the prevalence estimates based on household informants

Footnotes

  • ↵* Study was conducted while on study leave at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

This Article

  1. Abstract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Register for free content


Free trial
Individuals may register for a free 60 day online trial to all content.

Free archive
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.