TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Tobacco use among college students in Kerala, India
JO  - The Indian Journal of Medical Research
A1  - Jaisoorya, T. S.
A1  - Ganjekar, Sundarnag
A1  - Menon, Priya G.
A1  - Nair, B. Sivasankaran
A1  - Rani, Anjana
A1  - Thennarassu, K.
SP  - 527
EP  - 532
VL  - 154
IS  - 3
N2  - BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Despite tobacco use among college students being a major health concern, data remain sparse from India. It is in this background that this study aimed to report the prevalence of tobacco use and its psychosocial correlates among college students in the State of Kerala, India.  METHODS: A total of 5784 students from 58 colleges from Ernakulam district, Kerala, selected by cluster random sampling and were provided with self-administered questionnaire. In addition to socio-demographic profile, the questionnaire incorporated alcohol, smoking, and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST, for assessing tobacco use and its severity, lifetime use of other substances); Kessler's scale (psychological distress) and Barkeley's scale (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms). Screening questions were used for assessing lifetime suicidality and sexual abuse.  RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence of tobacco use was 8.6 per cent (21.5% males and 1.4% female). Among users, hazardous and dependent use defined using ASSIST scores was 63.3 and 2.9 per cent, respectively. Tobacco use was associated with older age, being male, urban residence, having a part-time job, use of alcohol and illicit drugs and academic failures.  INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Although the prevalence of tobacco use in our study was relatively low, the proportionately higher rates of hazardous use and its association with the negative correlates suggest that more needs to be done to prevent its deleterious consequences.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0975-9174
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_1505_18
ID  - ref1
ER  -