Prevalence of pan, gutka, betalnut, naswar and cigarette smoking in university students of Karachi

ABSTRACT

To evaluate prevalence of pan, gutka. betal nut, niswar and cigarette addiction among students of different universities and to be familiar with perception of people about addiction and smoking free public places. Cross-sectional study This study was carried out at three different universities of Karach, i.e. Karachi University, NED University and Sindh Medical University, Karachi from 10.08.2012 to 05.01.2013. A cross-sectional study conducted with a total of 537 students aged between 18-28 years from three different universities of Karachi. A questionnaire was given to them containing 28 close ended questions about addiction of pan, gutka, betel nut, naswar and tobacco. The data obtained was analysed by using SPSS version 17. The results showed 67.5% [361] were males and 32% [171] were females.The prevalence of addiction of pan, gutka, betal nut, Naswar and cigarette smoking is higher among males than in female university students. Addiction of betal nut is found 41.55% in males and 12.86% in females. There were 71.1% males and 72.5% females in complete favor of smoke free public places. The perception about addiction was 5.62% of the males and 0.585% of the females feel that it's good About 56.5% of the males and 84.79% of the females note that it's deleterious to health. Most popular addiction is of betal nut. Many people think that public places should be smoked free. Most of them are aware of the deleterious effect of addiction to health and tried to quit but failed. Hence, it is suggested that some awareness program about quitting modalities should be introduced