Why Do the Youths in Northeast India Use Tobacco?

Abstract

This study is an assessment of the influence of parent's tobacco use on prospective tobacco use trajectories among young offspring. The study is based on unit level data from District Level Household and Facility Survey-4 (2012-2013) comprising 27,706 youths in 15-24 years' age group from northeastern states of India and used multilevel regression to identify the potential risk factors of tobacco consumption. The likelihood of using tobacco was found to be 3.4 and 1.14 times more, respectively, for the youths coresiding with mothers who use tobacco and fathers who use tobacco, in comparison to youths staying with parents not taking tobacco. The significant effect of peers on tobacco consumption among youths was also observed. School-going youths had significantly lower risk of tobacco use. The estimated likelihood of a young person from a household to use any tobacco, use smokeless tobacco, and smoke was found to be 28, 12, and 17 percent, respectively. There is an urgent need to extend National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) to the community level involving civil societies and young and adult generations for spreading awareness about the health hazards of tobacco use, providing support and facilitating quitting tobacco use.