RESUMO
Background: Non-teaching staff working in medical institutes forms a formidable workforce and an important sector with respect to public health point of view. Nothing much is known about their tobacco habits and quit patterns.Methods: An interventional study was conducted for the period of two months among 258 non-teaching staff in a medical college in north Karnataka. A self-administered questionnaire followed by intervention in the form of health education about the harms of tobacco was given to the participants. Further, follow-up was conducted after a week and at the end of one month using the same questionnaire to study the quit rate among the tobacco users. Appropriate statistical tests were used to analyze the results.Results: Among 258 consented participants, 98 (38%) were using tobacco in any form. Smoking forms of tobacco use was seen in 17 (17.35%), smokeless forms in 61 (62.24%) and dual smoking and smokeless forms in 20 (20.41%) participants. Among tobacco users, only 30 (32.60%) actually attended the intervention. First follow-up was attended by 26 (86.67%) but none of them had quit tobacco. Second follow-up was again attended by same 26 participants. Among them, 3 (11.54%) participants had quit tobacco.Conclusions: Tobacco consumption among the study participants was high. Compliance for health education to quit tobacco was poor among study participants. Similarly, tobacco quit rate among those who attended the intervention and the two follow up sessions was very poor.