A Study on Prevalence of Tobacco Use among Children: A Literature Review

Abstract

International Scenario Studies' pertaining to tobacco use shows that tobacco consumption had been a problem from long back not only in our country but it's becoming a global problem. The following section discussed about global problem of tobacco which revealed that prevalence of tobacco found in all most every part of western countries. has done on 11 to15 year-old school children. The survey comprised European, Russian and Scandinavia countries. The study found that the rates for tobacco experimentation were lowest for the 11 year-olds and, in most countries, less than 20% of children in this age group had ever tried cigarettes. Consistent differences between countries emerged. For example, Greece, Flemish speaking Belgium and Portugal have the lowest rates of experimentation at the age of 11 year and at age 13 year. On the other hand, Greenland and the Slovak Republic have the two highest rates at age 11 (39% and 38%), and they are both in the top three at age 13 (73% and 58%) and 15 (86% and 75%). Regular smoking also increased substantially across age groups. No country exceeded a daily smoking rate of 2% for 11 year olds, while most countries were fewer than 10% at age 13 and 30% at the age of 15 year. Large increases were found in every country between age 13 and 15 years, but in some countries this was also the case between ages 11 and 13 years [1,2]. For example, both Northern Irish and Welsh data illustrate a 1% rate at age 11 year, a 9% rate at age 13 year and a 23% rate at age of 15 year. These daily smoking data also illustrate inter country differences. This was most striking amongst 15 year-old girls, where the rates range between 6% in Lithuania to 56% in Greenland. Interestingly, girls in Greenland report more daily smoking than boys in all three age groups. Girls were also reported higher rates of daily smoking than boys in a number of other countries. However, no countries showed a decrease in weekly smoking after every four years. The present report was silent about the difference of prevalence according to country wise. A Cross-sectional school-based survey [3] reported in London that 41.4% of students had tried smoking in the 6 th class, with prevalence increasing from 21% in class 6 th to 60% in class 12 th. Smokeless tobacco was reported by 19.3% students, with prevalence increasing from 12% Abstract The present paper reviewed majority of the studies Rani which were based on tobacco consumption. The review of literature found that most of the studies on present topic focused only on adult population and that too are medically oriented. However there are few studies which cover social factors such as Viswanath (2006), Ram (2003), Surendra (2007) and Kumar (2008). Actually the impact of tobacco seems at latter stage of life, therefore majority of the studies focused on the adult age group and young age group been neglected by the most of researchers. But here attempts are made to review on tobacco consumption among children in India as well as other western countries to understand the present scenario on the consumption of tobacco among children. The period wise studies specific on the children population are as follows. in class 6 th to 29% in class 12 th. The prevalence of regular use (≥ once/ week) of smokeless tobacco was one-third that of cigarette smoking, 4% (n=21) and 12% (n=66) respectively. Smoking initiation began as early as kindergarten, with 16% initiating by 4th grade and 43% initiating by 6th grade. Smokeless tobacco initiation began as early as second grade, with 11% having tried chewing tobacco by 4 th grade and 33% by 6 th grade. The study concluded that initiation of smoking and smokeless tobacco use began in early elementary school of rural area of London. It concluded that there was a need of tobacco prevention strategies in early elementary school and addresses both smoking and smokeless tobacco use. A study [4] assessed the prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among high school students in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 3909 children of 8th and 11 th graders of public and private schools. The study revealed that among 8th and 11th graders, 20% and 43%, respectively, were classified as current smokers. Overall, 29% of males and 32% of females were found current smokers. Students attending public schools were more likely to smoke than those in private schools. Current smoking was associated with having a best friend who smokes, reporting that more than 50% of friends of the same sex smoke, having positive attitudes and beliefs toward smoking, and having a positive intention to smoke within the next year. The study concluded that over 20% of the 8 th graders in the sample were current smokers and the use of tobacco mind-altering chemicals has deleterious effects on school performance. Students under the influence of tobacco are not ready to learn and are at risk of long-term impairment of cognitive ability and memory. In Israel, a study [5] on tobacco smoking via a water-pipe among school students reported that 41% smoke a water-pipe at various frequencies and 22% smoke at least every weekend. The study found