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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2015; 36(01): 32-37
DOI: 10.4103/0971-5851.151777
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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

V Parishi Majmudar
Department of Preventive Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
A Gauravi Mishra
Department of Preventive Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
V Sheetal Kulkarni
Department of Preventive Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
R Dusane Dusane
Department of Statistician, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
S Surendra Shastri
Department of Preventive Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

Knowledge - attitudes - and practices - smokeless tobacco - tobacco - women


Publication History

Article published online:
12 July 2021

© 2015. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

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