Prevalence of tobacco use among Class 10 students in an urban field practice area, Bangalore: a cross sectional study

Abstract
Objectives: To study prevalence and perception of tobacco use among 10th Standard students in an urban field practice area in Bangalore
Background: Smoking is the most widespread , modern social disease worldwide; and one “tobacco-related” death occurring every 8 seconds in India, whereas avoiding tobacco adds 20 yrs to the life of a teenager. Efficient preventive programs implemented among adolescents would considerably lower the morbidity and mortality in adults for chronic diseases.
Materials and methods: High schools of the urban field practice area were selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected by self-administering of pre-structured questionnaire to all Class 10 students of each of the selected schools.
Results: Overall prevalence of tobacco use was 17.9% .There was a statistically significant association between gender, parental influence and tobacco use among students (p