Use of smoke-less tobacco amongst the staff of tertiary care hospitals in the largest city of Pakistan.
BACKGROUND
Use of smoke-less tobacco (SLT) is very common in South and South-East Asian countries. It is significantly associated with various types of cancers. The objectives of this study were to assess the proportion of hospital staff that use SLT, and to identify the factors associated with its use and their practices.


METHODS
In a cross-sectional study, 560 staff of two tertiary care hospitals were interviewed in the year 2009. Nurses, ward boys and technicians were counted as a paramedic staff while drivers, peons, security guards and housekeeping staff were labeled as non-paramedic staff. SLT use was considered as usage of any of the following: betel quid (paan) with or without tobacco, betel nuts with or without tobacco (gutkha) and snuff (naswar).


RESULTS
About half (48.6%) of the hospital staff were using at least one type of SLT. Factors found to be statistically significant with SLT were being a male (OR=2.5; 95% CI=1.8-3.7); having no/fewer years of education (OR=1.7; 95% CI=1.2-2.4) and working as non-paramedic staff (OR=2.6; 95% CI=1.8-3.8). Majority of SLT users were using it on regular basis, for >5 years and keeping the tobacco products in the oral cavity for >30 minutes. About half of the users started due to peer pressure and had tried to quit this habit but failed.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, about half of the study participants were using SLT in different forms. We suggest educational and behavioral interventions for control of SLT usage.
Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.
Arif
A
Valliani
Bilawal
B
Ahmed
Kashmira
K
Nanji
Salimah
S
Valliani
Beenish
B
Zulfiqar
Misbah
M
Fakih
Mehwish
M
Mehdi
Anam
A
Khan
Sana Arshad
SA
Sheikh
Nida
N
Fatima
Sobia
S
Ahmad
Fariya
F
Farah
Shaheera
S
Saleem
Sana
S
Ather
Syed Khubaib
SK
Majid
Syed Salman
SS
Hashmi
Sunil
S
Arjan
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001114:Areca; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010154:Pakistan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D063128:Tertiary Health Care; D014030:Tobacco, Smokeless / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult