title: A smoking survey of college students in India: implications for designing an antismoking policy.
abstract: A survey of 599 college students was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, India, to formulate an anti-smoking policy for youth. There were 64.6% boys and 35.4% girls between 15 and 22 years, and 8.2% of students (n = 49, 48M + 1F) were smokers. It is a taboo for girls to smoke. There is no current anti-smoking policy and one is proposed based on the smoking survey results. The policy includes parental pressure to curb smoking, and a ban on (1) advertising of tobacco products, (2) smoking in public places and (3) teachers smoking in school. An increase in the price of cigarettes was approved by a majority of the students. The survey revealed a gap in the knowledge of students about the ill effects of smoking, which can be rectified by health education programs.
authors.affiliation: Lions Cancer Treatment & Research Centre, Visakhapatnam, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gavarasana
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Doddi
authors.forename: G V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Allam
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Murthy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*