Tobacco use among serving army personnel: An epidemiological study

India has consequential burden of tobacco related disease and death. Though there are surveys conducted at national and regional level yet the information about tobacco consumption among army personnel is scarce. Thus an epidemiological study was conducted to estimate the prevalence and assess determinants of tobacco consumption amongst army personnel.

A community based cross sectional study was conducted using simple random sampling to enroll 380 personnel. Data was collected using a pretested and validated questionnaire with relevant domains.

The age of participants was 33 + 7 years. The prevalence of ever tobacco users was 47.90% (95% CI: 42.78-53.05) and of current tobacco users was 35.00% (95% CI: 30.21-40.03). No association was found between ever users and age group, monthly income, occupation, length of service, family member usage (p > 0.05). Among smokeless tobacco forms, Khaini was most preferred (49.45%) followed by Gutkha. Majority of them (41.21%) were moderate tobacco chewers. Tobacco user friends (53.85%) were the main stimulants, which induced respondents to start tobacco. The important source of tobacco procurement was local vendor. 91.76% ever user were aware of the ill-effects of the tobacco use. There was statistically significant association for knowledge regarding tobacco use being harmful to family members between current users and ever users (p = 0.036).

The study highlights a high prevalence of tobacco user amongst army personnel. Reduction of easy accessibility, Behaviour Change Communication activities and stricter implementation of regulations are urgently required.