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. 2015 Mar;27(2):NP626-9.
doi: 10.1177/1010539513485787. Epub 2013 May 10.

Incidence of tobacco use among adults (15-64 years) in rural Kerala

Thirunavukkarasu Sathish  1 , Srinivasan Kannan  2 , P Sankara Sarma  2 , Kavumpurathu Raman Thankappan  2
Affiliations

Incidence of tobacco use among adults (15-64 years) in rural Kerala

Thirunavukkarasu Sathish et al. Asia Pac J Public Health. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

We analyzed data from a cohort study in rural Kerala, India, to study the incidence of current smoking and current smokeless tobacco use. At baseline, of 452 individuals aged 15 to 64 years, 385 were current nonsmokers and 402 were current nonusers of smokeless tobacco. Over a mean follow-up of 7.1 ± 0.2 years, 5.5% became current smokers and 9.0% became current smokeless tobacco users. Among men, 21.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 11.1-36.4) of younger individuals (15-24 years) became current smokers and 22.2% (CI = 10.6-40.8) of older individuals (55-64 years) became current smokeless tobacco users. No women smoked both at baseline and at follow-up, but 9.7% (CI = 3.4-24.9) of older women (55-64 years) became current smokeless tobacco users. These findings call for effective implementation of India's Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.

Keywords: India; Kerala; cohort study; incidence; rural; smokeless tobacco use; smoking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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