Tobacco abuse amongst the school going students of 15 to 18 years of Almora district, Uttarakhand: a cross sectional study.

PURPOSE: The present study was done to assess the prevalence of tobacco abuse among school going students of the age group 15 to 18 year old in the rural areas of Almora district, Uttrakhand state, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Schools were grouped into 4 zones north, south and east, west based on their location in district, respectively. Second stage one private and one government school was randomly selected from each zone of rural Almora. All students belonging to age 15 to 18 year were selected from the selected schools. Data was collected by a pretested, closed ended questionnaire. RESULTS: Overall, the prevalence of tobacco consumption among the adolescents was 45.42%. 63% male and 47.1% female adolescents were habituated to it. All female and majority of the male adolescents predominantly consumed a smokeless form of tobacco. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of tobacco consumption indicates a downward shift in the age for the uptake of tobacco habit by adolescents and a rising prevalence among girls. Our findings suggest that tobacco use prevention and control measures are warranted and should be started very early preferably at primary education level.