The effectiveness of tobacco counseling among construction workers in Jaipur city

Abstract

Background: Tobacco use at the construction sites is very high. Once users are dependent on tobacco, quitting is difficult Material and Method: A study was carried out to assess the effectiveness of tobacco de-addiction intervention among construction workers. A total of 1200 workers were screened, out of them 800 factory workers (400 smokers study group 400 smokers control group were selected for the study. All the collected data was analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 20 Version. The proportions (% of subjects affected) were calculated for each clinical parameter and the various statistical test of significance were used. Result: Among the total subjects 633(79.1%) workers was using smokeless form of tobacco and 167(20.9%) workers were using smoking form of tobacco. Out of 633, 6.8% workers used Gutka and 93.2% workers used Zarda. Out of 167 smoking form tobacco users, 34.2% workers used Beedi and 65.8% workers used Cigarette. It was found that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of Fagerstrom/smoking analysis between baseline – 3 months, 6 months and 9 months (t=45.581, 64.911, 20.415; p= 0.000). Conclusions: Tobacco use is an important public health problem, especially in developing countries like India specially the workers. Specific counseling and intervention programs are needed to reduce the burden of tobacco use related morbidity among these workers community.