Practice of Female Smoking among Older Females in Rural Areas of Uttarakhand

Smoking is a leading risk factor for many types of diseases globally. Tobacco smoking by women is culturally unacceptable in India, but still women smoke tobacco at various stages of their life. The study was aimed to explore the current practices of smoking among older females in rural areas of Northern state of India.

Quantitative non experimental approach with exploratory descriptive design was used to attain error free outcomes. Eighty (80 Nos.) older females were selected by Snowball sampling technique from selected rural areas. The Older females aged more than 55 years and who reside in the rural areas were only included in the study. Semi structured interview was conducted to explore the current practices of smoking among Older females. Self developed practice checklist was used during the data collection. Ethical committee permission from Swami Rama Himalayan University, Dehradun was obtained from the concerned authority and informed consent was taken from the study participants.

Most (81.23%) of the Older Females smoke daily and two-third (65%) smoke less than 10 times in a day. Half (50%) of the older females were inspired by their friends to smoke, 82.50% feel energetic after smoking, 52.50% smoke to get relief from stress, 80% like to smoke at home and majority (53.75%) like to smoke more in winter season as they feel energetic after smoking.

Awareness of adverse effects is quite low needing proper intervention and education to decrease health complications for future generations.