Tobacco use and its determinants among students of grade 8, 9 and 10 of Kirtipur municipality of Nepal

Tobacco use is one of the major preventable cause of death and disability in the world. Recent trends show that smoking prevalence among adolescents is rising and the age of initiation is decreasing. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of tobacco use among adolescents and the age at which they begin smoking. This was a school based cross sectional descriptive study done in randomly selected five secondary schools of Kirtipur Municipality of Nepal. Self administered anonymous questionnaires were used to collect data from 291 students of five secondary schools.

 The prevalence of tobacco use in any form was 41%. Twenty six percentages of students had ever experimented with cigarettes and 12% were current smokers (i.e. smoked on last thirty days). The male tobacco users were more than female tobacco users in any form. The use of smokeless tobacco product and ever use of cigarette was more among the students of nongovernmental school where as the current users were more from the government school than nongovernmental schools. Around twenty three percent of the students had smoked cigarette for the first time when they were below ten years of age. The urge to taste cigarette was the most common reason for students to experiment with cigarette followed by friend’s pressure.

 Around eighty three percent of students had good knowledge (could list at least one or more health effect of smoking like cough, bronchitis, asthma, cancer etc) regarding the harmful effects of smoking. And seventeen percent of students had poor knowledge (could not list any harmful effects of tobacco). Wrong perceptions like “one who smokes has many friends”, “smoking makes one attractive” etc.  prevail among students. So it is necessary to launch awareness programmes in schools to aware students about harmful effects of tobacco.