Women and tobacco: a cross sectional study from North India

Tobacco is a leading risk factor for different types of diseases globally. Tobacco smoking by women is culturally unacceptable in India, but still women smoke tobacco at various times of their life.

The aim was to estimate the prevalence and pattern of tobacco use among women and to study the associated sociodemographic factors.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among women aged 30 years or over in an urban resettlement colony for the migrant population at Chandigarh, India.

The study included women used tobacco products on one or more days within the past 30 days. Through systematic random sampling, 262 women were studied. As a part of the study 144 bidi smoking women were interviewed using detailed semi-structured questionnaire.

Descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing with Chi-squared test and logistic regression were done using SPSS 16.0 version.

Overall, the prevalence of tobacco use was 29.4% and that of bidi, zarda and hookah were 19.8%, 8.8%, and 2.7%, respectively. Around 6.2% women used tobacco during pregnancy. Teenage was the most common age of initiation of bidi smoking. Logistic regression analysis showed that the prevalence of tobacco use was high among Hindu unemployed women with no formal education belonged to scheduled caste, and those having grandchildren.

This study highlighted high rates of tobacco use and explored both individual and family factors related to tobacco use among women. Affordable, culturally acceptable, sustainable and gender-sensitive individual and community-specific interventions will reduce the prevalence and effects of tobacco use.