title: Tobacco use and associated factors among adolescent students in Dharan, Eastern Nepal: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The tobacco use among the youth, in both smoking and smokeless forms, is quite high in the South East Asian region. Tobacco use is a major proven risk factor and contributes substantially to the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the prevalence of tobacco use and determine associated factors among adolescent students of Dharan municipality.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Secondary and higher secondary schools of Dharan municipality in Sunsari district of Nepal.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students in middle (14-15 years) and late adolescence (16-19 years) from grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 were included.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ever tobacco use which was defined as one who had not used any form of tobacco in the past 1 month but had tried in the past.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-administered questionnaire adapted from Global Youth Tobacco Survey was used to assess tobacco use among the representative sample of 1312 adolescent students selected by stratified random sampling from July 2011 to July 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 1454 students, 1312 students completed the questionnaires with a response rate of 90.23%. Prevalence of ever use of any tobacco product was 19.7% (95% CI 17.7 to 21.6). More than half of the tobacco users (51.9%) consumed tobacco in public places whereas almost a third (75.6%) of the consumers purchased tobacco from shops. Multivariate analysis showed that tobacco use was associated with late adolescence (OR: 1.64; 95% CI 1.17 to 2.28), male gender (OR: 12.20; 95% CI 7.78 to 19.14), type of school (OR=1.72; 95% CI 1.01 to 2.94), Janajati ethnicity (OR: 2.05; 95% CI 1.39 to 3.01) and receiving pocket money ≥Nepalese rupees 500/month (OR: 1.45; 95% CI 1.04 to 2.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tobacco-focused interventions are required for school/college going students to promote cessation among users and prevent initiation, focussing on late adolescence, male gender, government schools, Janajati ethnicity and higher amount of pocket money.
authors: School of Public Health and Community Medicine, B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan,  Nepal.
authors: Pranil Man Singh
authors: PM
authors: Pradhan
authors: Surya Raj
authors: SR
authors: Niraula
authors: Anup
authors: A
authors: Ghimire
authors: Suman Bahadur
authors: SB
authors: Singh
authors: Paras Kumar
authors: PK
authors: Pokharel