1Associate Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh, India
2Final Year M.B.B.S Student, Dept. of Community Medicine, Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh, India
3Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh, India
4Statistician cum Lecturer, Dept. of Community Medicine, Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh, India
5Prof. and H.O.D, Dept. of Community Medicine, Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari Dist., Andhra Pradesh, India
*Corresponding author: Dr. U. Vijaya Kumar, M.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences, Eluru, West Godavari Dist., A.P., India. E-Mail: uvkr_75@yahoo.co.in, Cell no: 09440148818
Online published on 16 January, 2016.
Female smokers in India has gone up in the last 30 years but the number of men who puff daily dipped in the country where more people are smoking today, smoking among Indian men fell from 33.8% to in 1980 to 23% in 2012 while women in 2012 a total of 12.1 million women smoked in India, compared to 5.3 million female smokers in 1980 while the prevalence of male smokers was estimated to be 98 million in the same year.
1. To study the socio demographic profile of rural female smokers.
2. To find out reasons for smoking among rural females.
A community based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 176 adult female subjects in three villages of Srikakulam Rural Mandal, Data regarding socio demographic profile, personal habits, reasons for smoking and health profile will be collected by interview method from 01-05-2014 to 31-05-2014 (1 month). IEC clearance was taken and data was analyzed with EXCEL 2007.
Among female smokers, age of starting of smoking <15 years was 57.96%. House wives were 53.67%, Agricultural labour were 30.68% and 15.34% were other labour. Illiterates were 94.88% and 5.12% were primarily educated. 98.86% females were smoking chutta and 1.37% females were smoking cigarette. 59.66% smoke after taking meals, 10.79% to cheer up, 10.23% smoke to get relief from boredom.
Smoking among females constitute high risk group requires special attention.
Rural, Female, Smoking, Reasons
