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

Abstract

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, socioeconomic status using a semistructured 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 socioeconomic 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 socioeconomic 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.

Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke in Hormozgan province Residents’ Southern Iran

“…The present findings revealed that the highest degree of ETS occurred respectively at home, public places and the workplace which was consistent with the findings reported by Ahmed [11] , Palipudi [5] and Al Zabadi et al [2] that found the highest degree of ETS to occur at home. Some other investigations reported similar findings too [15,16] .…”

“…The findings reported by Gilman et al revealed that men smoked much more than women and this exposed women inadvertently to tobacco smoke produced by men [12] . A body of related literature reported similar findings [7,11,13,14] . Unlike the present Study, Skorge et al [13] and Kaneita et al [14] observed that men were more exposed to tobacco smoke than women.…”

“…Those with the highest exposure were located nearby in the eastern part of the province. Some other research findings showed that geographic diversity can affect smoking [11] . Some other underlying reasons can be the different customs, cultures, social pattern and urban texture as Hormozgan is extensive in size and contains many divergent cultures.…”

“…Affecting factors of secondhand smoke exposure in Korea: Focused on different ... [2] Exposure evaluation of environmental tobacco smoke: Gender and socioeconomic ... [3] Knowledge, attitudes, and behavior in avoiding secondhand ... [4] WHO report on the global tobacco ... [5] Exposure to tobacco smoke among ... [6] The relationship between maternal ... [7] The effect of active and passive ... [8] Population-based survey of secondhand ... [9] Secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmoking ... [10] Prevalence and determinants of secondhand ... [11] Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke ... [12] Parental smoking and adolescent smoking initiation ... [13] Exposure to environmental tobacco ... [14] Epidemiological study on passive smoking among Japanese ... [15] Secondhand smoke exposure among women and ... [16] Cigarette smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke ... [17] Measuring exposure to Environmental ... [18] Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in ... [19] Environmental tobacco smoke exposure in public ... [20] Reactions to secondhand smoke by ... [21] Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke among South Korean adults: A cross-sectional study of the 2005 Korea National Health and ... [22] Smoking prevalence and the association between ... [23] Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke ... [24] Decrease in the prevalence of environmental ... [25] Environmental tobacco smoke in Norwegian ... [26] Parental education on passive smoking ... [27] Independent evaluation of the California Tobacco Control ... [28] Smoking practices and risk awareness in parents regarding passive smoke exposure of their preschool children: A cross-sectional ... [29] Smoking behavior and demographic risk factors in ... [30] Factors associated with secondhand tobacco ... [31] "Coming to town": The impact of urbanicity, cigarette advertising, and network norms on the smoking ... [32] Smoking knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among rural-to-urban migrant women ...…”

“…Agaku et al estimated ETS among high school students to be 48% [10] . Research findings in the Indian context showed that many urban housewives (33.5%) were secondhand smokers [11] . The adverse effects of smoking are not exclusive to smokers and affect the surrounding non-smokers too, and there is a limited body of research conducted on this issue in Iran The present Study aimed to investigate the extent to which Hormozgan province residents were exposed to ETS.…”