Tobacco Consumption Practices among the School Students.

Research question: What is the prevalence of tobacco consumption in school students of Anand Taluka in Gujarat. Settings: Urban and rural areas of Anand taluka of Gujarat. Study design: A cross-sectional study. Participants: School students of class 11th and 12th of selected schools. Methodology: Sample size taken for the study purpose was 1200 in accordance with the prevalence of tobacco consumption in Kheda district of Gujarat. The study was conducted with the help of pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire. Urban and rural areas were selected by simple random sampling and school students were selected by systematic random sampling. Results: The prevalence of current tobacco users was found to be 8.2%. Chewing is the most preferable form of tobacco use. Maximum number of users started tobacco use at the age of 11-15. The study showed a lack of knowledge in the students regarding the consequences of tobacco use. Friend’s and teacher’s smoking behaviour is significantly associated with student’s tobacco consumption.

A community-based study of asthenopia in computer operators.

CONTEXT: There is growing body of evidence that use of computers can adversely affect the visual health. Considering the rising number of computer users in India, computer-related asthenopia might take an epidemic form. In view of that, this study was undertaken to find out the magnitude of asthenopia in computer operators and its relationship with various personal and workplace factors. AIMS: To study the prevalence of asthenopia among computer operators and its association with various epidemiological factors. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Community-based cross-sectional study of 419 subjects who work on computer for varying period of time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four hundred forty computer operators working in different institutes were selected randomly. Twenty-one did not participate in the study, making the nonresponse rate 4.8%. Rest of the subjects (n = 419) were asked to fill a pre-tested questionnaire, after obtaining their verbal consent. Other relevant information was obtained by personal interview and inspection of workstation. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Simple proportions and Chi-square test. RESULTS: Among the 419 subjects studied, 194 (46.3%) suffered from asthenopia during or after work on computer. Marginally higher proportion of asthenopia was noted in females compared to males. Occurrence of asthenopia was significantly associated with age of starting use of computer, presence of refractive error, viewing distance, level of top of the computer screen with respect to eyes, use of antiglare screen and adjustment of contrast and brightness of monitor screen. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of asthenopia was noted to be quite high among computer operators, particularly in those who started its use at an early age. Individual as well as work-related factors were found to be predictive of asthenopia.