Publication:

Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke among non-smoker adult females in urban households of Aligarh, India

Background Environmental tobacco smoke is a serious global public health problem. A better understanding of the correlates of Environmental tobacco smoke exposure could guide the development of evidence based Environmental tobacco smoke exposure reduction interventions. The study is conducted with the objective to describe the pattern of and factors associated with Environmental tobacco smoke exposure among non-smoking adult females in urban areas of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Methods A total of 439 households were selected by systematic random sampling. One non-smoker adult female was selected randomly from each household. Her exposure to Environmental tobacco smoke was recorded along with socio-demographic characteristic as age, education, occupation, type of family, socio-economic status using a semi-structured questionnaire based on Global Adult Tobacco Survey methodology. Her knowledge regarding harmful effects of Environmental tobacco smoke was also enquired. Data analysis was done using Chi Square test.

Results Environmental tobacco smoke exposure rate at home among the participants was 33.5%. Females with lower levels of education and lower socio-economic status had higher exposure to Environmental tobacco smoke than their counterparts with the difference being statistically significant.  Only 59.2% of the participants considered exposure to Environmental tobacco smoke to be harmful to health with the knowledge being significantly poor in those who were not exposed to Environmental tobacco smoke and had lower levels of education and socio-economic status.

Conclusion The findings suggest the need for comprehensive tobacco control measures that would improve public understanding about health hazards of Environmental tobacco smoke exposure at home and encourage educational initiatives to promote smoke-free homes.